Funds for DR Congo Ebola fight not reaching front: MSF

This photo taken on Aug. 6, 2026 shows China-donated tents at an Ebola prevention and control site outside Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo . [AFP]

Vast sums of international aid to fight the Democratic Republic of Congo's deadly Ebola outbreak are failing to reach medics on the front line, charity Doctors Without Borders warned Thursday.

Since first being detected in the DRC's conflict-plagued Ituri province in mid-May -- with several months' delay -- the current outbreak of the virus has killed more than 5,300 people out of more than 11,000 confirmed cases.

Known by its French acronym MSF, the top medical charity warned that the Ebola outbreak, the country's worst, "remains out of control".

It urged more "transparency and accountability" from a Congolese state notorious for corruption.

"A troubling disconnect between the considerable resources mobilised for the response and what is actually reaching patients, frontline workers, and communities continues," MSF said in a statement.

Despite the hundreds of millions of dollars spent by the international community, "many frontline responders are left trying to contain the outbreak with empty hands and empty pockets," said Javid Abdelmoneim, MSF's international president.

"Our teams are often left speechless by the dysfunctions they witness in many areas.

"Six months into the response, this situation is simply unacceptable."

- Ambulances without fuel -

MSF cited cases of healthcare workers not being paid or trained, ambulances left to run without fuel, a lack of supplies or support for frontline employees and Ebola monitoring "surveillance teams that exist on paper but are nowhere to be seen on the ground".

The charity also warned that some parts of the vast central African nation were seeing an "excessive concentration of efforts... at the expense of other hotspots where needs are increasingly urgent".

These inadequacies have made some hospitals into "new centres of transmission, rather than places of care", MSF warned.

In one part of the eastern province of North Kivu, "close to three-quarters of Ebola patients contracted the disease in a health facility."

The charity also singled out the "deeply problematic" virus surveillance system for criticism.

While it acknowledged that "community mistrust makes surveillance difficult", given the long absence of the Congolese state from many of the hotspots, "urgent improvements in oversight, staffing, and operational support are essential".

The latest outbreak of Ebola, which is transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluids, has also spread across the DRC's borders to Uganda, Kenya and as far afield as Nigeria.

The current epidemic is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, for which no approved vaccine or treatment is currently available.