Ten thousand displaced people in Bunia, eastern Congo, face an Ebola epidemic with a single handwashing station and one infrared thermometer. Residents of the ISP camp, forced from their homes by conflict, report living with "nothing to protect ourselves," "no water or soap," and "near garbage," according to Francine Leve Janguzi, who has resided in the camp for eight and a half years. Janguzi stated, "We don’t have any help whatsoever. We don’t have soap or water, yet we’re told to wash our hands regularly and be clean." This dire situation unfolds as a rare Bundibugyo type of Ebola spreads undetected, having already recorded over 1,000 suspected cases and at least 220 deaths as of Tuesday, including seven confirmed cases in Uganda.
Life Under Capital's Wars
Almost a million people have been displaced from their homes by conflict in Ituri province, the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak. The majority of ISP camp residents were forced to flee their villages in Djugu territory following attacks by CODECO, one of multiple armed groups operating in the region. Eastern Congo has endured years of attacks by dozens of separate rebel and militant groups, some with direct links to foreign countries or the extremist Islamic State group. The Rwanda-backed M23 rebels control parts of the region, while the Allied Democratic Forces, a Ugandan Islamist group linked to IS, is a dominant force in Ituri, responsible for violent attacks against civilian targets. This sustained conflict, driven by external interests and local proxies, has systematically dismantled public infrastructure.
Heather Kerr, Congo director with the International Rescue Committee, noted that "Eastern DRC’s years of conflict and displacement have left health systems on their knees, and that makes containing this outbreak all the harder." Gabriela Arenas, a regional coordinator at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, added that the outbreak is "unfolding in communities already facing insecurity, displacement and fragile healthcare systems." Before the current outbreak, humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders assessed that insecurity in Ituri had worsened, causing doctors and nurses to flee and leaving health facilities overwhelmed, leading to "catastrophic conditions" in some areas.
The State's Failure
Despite the Congolese government largely controlling northeastern Ituri Province, its authority is described as tenuous. Gérard Maki, a community leader in the camp, expressed the profound fear among residents, stating, "I’ve learned that there’s no cure, which is why it scares me." Maki appealed, "Our government should also do everything possible to find a solution to this disease," highlighting the state's failure to provide basic protection and healthcare for its dispossessed citizens. The lack of essential services like water, soap, and adequate medical facilities in displacement camps underscores the state's inability or unwillingness to protect its population from preventable disease, prioritizing other interests or being rendered impotent by ongoing imperialist-backed conflicts.
Band-Aid Solutions
Aid groups and healthcare workers are rushing supplies to Ituri province in an effort to stem the outbreak, which has been declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization. However, these reactive measures do not address the foundational issues of systemic conflict, mass displacement, and the collapse of public health infrastructure that have created the conditions for such an epidemic to flourish. The focus on emergency supplies, while necessary, bypasses the structural violence of a system that allows foreign-backed militias to operate freely, displacing populations and destroying the collective resources needed for public health, leaving the most vulnerable to bear the human cost.