Traders face big losses over Ebola border closure

Traders are facing big losses after Uganda closed its border with the DRC over Ebola contagion fears, reports africanews. On 28 May, about two weeks after Congo declared an outbreak of Ebola in the eastern Ituri province, Uganda closed its western border in a decision that reflected growing fears of cross-border contagion. Exceptions were made only in emergency cases, including for the outbreak response, humanitarian, cargo or security reasons. But in recent days, as the spread of Ebola in eastern Congo appeared to outpace the response, authorities in the Ugandan frontier district of Kasese have tightened the measures. Traders said they are frustrated by the slow movement of cargo trucks. The Uganda-Congo border, several hundred miles long and crossed by numerous footpaths, has been beyond formal border posts. Mpondwe was Uganda's top border post for informal exports that were valued at an estimated $131m in 2023, according to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics. After the recent border closure, some shops were shuttered and young men, deprived of casual work, sat on stools dolefully. The current outbreak in Congo is suspected to have infected over 1 000 people.

The number of confirmed cases has been much lower because many suspected victims succumb to their symptoms outside hospitals and without firm proof they had Ebola. The World Health Organisation, while declaring the current outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, discouraged border closures. But the UN agency also acknowledged that neighboring countries are at high risk of contagion, according to africanews. ‘The border on Mpondwe has porous points about 32 just across, the board,’ said Arafat Bwambale, a surveillance officer for Kasese, defending the measures. Officials were trying to stop Congolese nationals from crossing to Uganda by way of more than two dozen footpaths along the Mpondwe border, he said. All available vaccines and treatments for Ebola haven't worked for patients with the rare Bundibugyo type spreading in the DRC, making the outbreak worrisome. Uganda has confirmed 15 Ebola cases, all linked to the outbreak in the neighboring country after some Congolese nationals sought treatment in the Ugandan capital of Kampala before it was known there was an outbreak. The disease was believed to have been spreading for days or weeks before the outbreak was declared on 15 May. Uganda has had multiple Ebola outbreaks of its own since 2000, when the disease killed more than 200 people.

Full africanews report