Updated 19th of May 2026
What is the Ebola crisis — and where does it stand right now?
In early May 2026, health workers in Bunia, north-eastern DRC, began seeing a cluster of severe, unexplained illnesses. By 15 May, tests confirmed Ebola. Two days later, the WHO escalated its response to the highest possible level. Cases have now been confirmed in Kampala, Uganda, in two people who had travelled from DRC.
This is a fast-moving, regional emergency — unfolding in one of the world's most fragile humanitarian environments, with no vaccine available and health workers among the first to fall ill.
Why does an Ebola outbreak hit children hardest?
Ebola devastates lives. But it’s the hidden fallout that hits children hardest—and lasts far beyond the outbreak.
Children lose parents.
In the 2014–2016 West Africa outbreak — the worst in history — more than 30,000 children lost one or both parents. Overnight, they became the most vulnerable people in their communities.
Fear breaks families apart.
In some communities, the fear of Ebola transmission is so powerful that orphaned children are rejected by surviving relatives. The disease isolates children at the very moment they need protection most.
Schools close.
Ebola forces school closures — and in DRC, schools were already closing. In 2025 alone, 775 schools shut due to conflict in North Kivu, leaving more than 375,000 children out of education. Ebola pushes those numbers further.
Children disappear from the system.
In Liberia during the 2014–2016 outbreak, over 70,000 children were unregistered — no birth certificate, no school enrolment, no access to services. They became invisible to the state, and easy targets for exploitation.
Trauma compounds over time.
Children who witness Ebola deaths — often within their own family — carry that trauma for years. Stigma means many never receive the support they need to process what they experienced.
"In some communities, the fear surrounding Ebola is stronger than family ties — and children are rejected by the people who should protect them most."
— UNICEF, on the impact of previous Ebola outbreaks on children in DRC
What does DRC look like for children right now - before you add Ebola?
This is the part that matters most, and gets reported least. DRC is one of the most dangerous places to be a child. Ebola is arriving into a place that has been in continuous humanitarian crisis for nearly three decades.
In 2026, 14.9 million people need humanitarian assistance. In December 2025 alone, more than 500,000 people — including over 100,000 children — were forced from their homes as violence escalated in South Kivu. Armed groups targeted civilians directly, killing and injuring nearly 200 people.
Over four million children under five are facing acute malnutrition. Fourteen million children face critical hunger. And now, Ebola — a disease that disrupts food systems, forces families to flee, and collapses the fragile health infrastructure that stands between a sick child and survival.
Each crisis makes the next one worse. That's what children in DRC are living.
FROM OUR TEAMS ON THE GROUND
When fighting broke out in North Kivu in January 2025, 12-year-old Nyota* fled alone after being separated from her family in the chaos. She found shelter in a church — on an empty stomach, with no belongings and no one she knew.
Our local partner identified Nyota as an unaccompanied child, placed her with a foster family, and began tracing her relatives across displacement sites. After months of searching, her uncle was found. In October 2025, Nyota was reunited with her family. Ebola outbreaks create thousands more children like Nyota.
*Name changed to protect identity.
Hills crossed as part of the family reunification journey of 12-year-old Nyota*.
What is Save the Children doing?
We've been in DRC for decades. We've responded to Ebola there before — and we didn't wait for a WHO declaration to start.
During DRC's 10th Ebola outbreak, our Emergency Health Unit was deployed within days. We supported overstretched local hospitals, trained healthcare workers in infection prevention and control, and ran community education campaigns to tackle the misinformation that was actively helping the virus spread. That experience matters now.
HOW WE'RE HELPING CHILDREN IN DRC RIGHT NOW
Health response: Supporting health facilities in affected areas to detect, isolate and manage Ebola cases safely. This includes providing personal protective equipment (PPE), establishing screening, training health workers on Ebola protocols, and continuity of essential health services.
Nutrition: Integrating nutrition support into the Ebola response so children and families affected by the outbreak can safely isolate and recover, while continuing to access essential nutrition services
Child protection: Protecting children from the wider impacts of the outbreak, including family separation, stigma and exploitation. This includes identifying and supporting children who have lost caregivers, providing psychosocial support, strengthening referral systems, and activating community-based protection.
Community education: Working with communities to stop the spread of Ebola through trusted, local-language information, tackling misinformation, and supporting families to stay informed and protected.
Education: Helping keep children safe and learning. Where schools remain open, we support hygiene measures, screening and teacher training on Ebola prevention and reporting. If schools close, we provide alternative learning through home-based materials, radio education and child-friendly spaces.
Water and sanitation: Providing clean water and chlorine for disinfection — one of the most effective tools available where no vaccine exists.
What do children in DRC actually need from us?
Children in DRC are faced with an impossible reality. What they need goes far beyond an increase in awareness driven by the news. They need sustained, consistent commitment that means we're there before the next crisis hits — with staff trained, communities trusted, and supply chains ready to move.
Every Ebola outbreak in DRC has been harder to contain because of the conflict, distrust and displacement surrounding it. The answer to that isn't just faster emergency response. It's being present in communities long enough that when crisis comes, people know who we are and trust us to help.
That kind of presence is only possible with reliable, long-term funding. Which is what a monthly gift provides.
Children in DRC are facing Ebola on top of everything else. They need us to stay.
Your generous donation could provide children and families affected by the Ebola outbreak in DRC, as well as other disasters across the world, with life-saving essentials like food, water and crucial mental health support. It can also help create lasting change through longer term programmes to alleviate poverty and the chronic impact of climate change.
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
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What happens to children when Ebola breaks out?
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The medical impact is only part of it. Children lose parents, get separated from families in the chaos of evacuation, and are sometimes rejected by surviving relatives out of fear of infection. Schools close. Communities fracture. In the 2014–2016 outbreak, more than 30,000 children lost one or both parents — many left without any adult to care for them. The effects last years, not weeks.
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Why are children in DRC so vulnerable right now?
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Because they were already at breaking point before Ebola arrived. Over four million children under five face acute malnutrition. More than 6.4 million children were already out of school due to conflict. Families displaced by violence have no safety net to fall back on. Ebola lands on top of all of this — and the current strain has no approved vaccine, meaning community-level prevention is the only line of defence in a region where health systems are severely overstretched.
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What happens to children who are orphaned by Ebola?
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They face compounding risks. Fear of Ebola can lead surviving relatives to reject orphaned children rather than take them in. Without family care, children become far more vulnerable to exploitation, trafficking and recruitment by armed groups. Save the Children works to trace and reunite separated families, and to place children who cannot be immediately reunited with safe, supported foster families while the search continues.
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How is this outbreak different from previous Ebola outbreaks?
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The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain, for which there is no approved vaccine or specific treatment. In previous outbreaks, vaccination campaigns were a key containment tool. That option doesn't exist here. Containment depends entirely on surveillance, isolation, community trust and infection prevention — in a conflict zone where all of those things are harder to deliver.
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What is Save the Children doing on the ground?
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We are working with 13 local and international partners across DRC on health, nutrition, child protection, education and water and sanitation. We have responded to Ebola in DRC before — deploying our Emergency Health Unit to support hospitals, training healthcare workers, and running community education campaigns to counter the misinformation that actively drove previous outbreaks. We're already there. We're scaling up. we reached 1.7 million children with health and nutrition programmes in 2025.
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How can I help children affected by the Ebola crisis?
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You can support organisations like Save the Children that deliver nutrition programmes, emergency food aid, and long-term solutions in affected communities. Advocating for policies that address poverty, food security, and climate change also makes a difference. Learn more about how you can help.
