Ebola: Africa CDC calls for a peace corridor in Beni
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Mediacongo
Africa CDC is calling for a "peace corridor" in Beni to allow health and humanitarian teams to continue the Ebola response after the attack on Cantine-Aloya on 5 November. The incursion attributed to the ADF killed at least 33 civilians and burned homes and a health post, according to local officials.
Africa CDC is calling for the urgent establishment of a "peace corridor" in Beni territory, in North Kivu, to allow health and humanitarian teams to continue their interventions against the Ebola epidemic. Its director-general, Jean Kaseya, made the call in a statement published on Sunday 8 November 2026 in Addis Ababa, where the African Union public health agency is based, after the deadly attack on Cantine-Aloya on 5 November.
According to Christian Kakule Vulembera, the doctor in charge of the Kelekele hospital centre in Cantine, 180 patients left the facility to take shelter after the raid, including people suspected of being infected and one patient whose infection was confirmed. The health official also reports the flight of high-risk contacts and other people under surveillance, which complicates locating them and controlling the chain of transmission of the virus.
The attack took place at around 11pm in this locality some 50 kilometres west of the town of Beni. Armed men attributed to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) by local authorities targeted civilians and burned several homes as well as a health post. At least 33 bodies were found, according to local civil society officials, while the Congolese army reports at least 37 civilians killed.
The alert comes the day after 66 FARDC soldiers were sentenced to death in Walikale on 7 November for cowardice and desertion in the face of the M23. The Ebola epidemic continues to spread in eastern DR Congo, where it had reached 10,000 cases and nearly 5,000 deaths at the end of October.
