On 22 August 2022, the Democratic Republic of the Congo declared a new case of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the city of Beni, Beni health zone located in the province of North Kivu. According to the authorities, the history of this case dates to 23 July 2022 with the hospitalization of a 46-year-old female and widowed patient at the Beni General Referral Hospital. The lady later died from a respiratory distress with an HIV-Tuberculosis immunosuppression pre-existing condition on 15 August 2022 in the Intensive Care Unit of the General Reference Hospital (HGR) in Beni, Beni Territory in North Kivu Province. A routine oropharyngeal (swab) sample was taken on 15 August 2022 by the HGR Beni team, which turned out to be positive for EVD at the Beni laboratory and then confirmed at the INRB laboratory in Goma. The sequencing carried out at the Rodolphe Mérieux Laboratory of the National Institute for Biomedical Research (INRB) in Goma confirmed the Zaire Ebola strain and also demonstrated that this case is linked to a strain of the tenth outbreak of November 2018 in Beni and not to a new introduction of the virus.

The epicentre of the disease is Butanuka Health Area, Beni Health Zone, North Kivu Province. The City of Beni is accessible by air and land. This city is 52 km from the city of Butembo, 372 km from Goma and about 80 km from the border city of Kasindi with Uganda. There is also an exit route which directly connects the city of Beni with the city of Bunia in Ituri province and the city of Kisangani in Tshopo province.

Currently, the epidemiological situation according to the Ministry of Health is 1 confirmed case, 1 death and 179 contacts as see in table 1 below: (p.1).

The city of Beni has communication and mobile telephony infrastructures with a presence in the community and commercial radios including television along with Airtel, Vodacom and Orange networks which are the sources of information and interaction between people. The city of Beni is also a centre of trade with Butembo, the line of the province of Ituri as well as the border town of Kasindi in Uganda. Swahili and Kinande are the two local languages most spoken by the people. In addition, Beni is a host city for populations displaced from surrounding villages such as Mangina for security reasons. Indeed, the security situation is very worrying in the territory because of the presence of armed groups in the areas surrounding the city of Beni.

The Ministry of Health has the lead on all Response Commissions and coordinates with the Beni Health Areas and all neighbouring health zones as well as all partners involved in the response. This is to share information on the movement of high-risk contacts with all stakeholders.

It should be noted that during previous epidemics, the MoH health staff who worked on the response experienced non-payment of their allowances, which means that there is a lack of commitment in the current epidemic. In addition, there is community reluctance in the region, which is why the Government is seeking the support of its partners such as the Red Cross, which has proven expertise on the ground in the management of community reluctance.