Congo forced to cancel World Cup training camp, events over Ebola outbreak
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) soccer team has cancelled a three-day World Cup preparation training camp and a planned farewell to fans in the capital Kinshasa due to the Ebola outbreak in the east of the country.
The World Health Organization declared the Ebola disease outbreak caused by a rare virus in Congo and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday, with at least 139 suspected deaths and more than 600 suspected cases.
Congo is scheduled to play World Cup warm-up games against Denmark in Liege, Belgium, on June 3 and Chile in southern Spain on June 9. Both matches are going ahead as planned, team spokesman Jerry Kalemo told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
“There were three stages of preparation: in Kinshasa to say goodbye to the public, Belgium and Spain, with two friendly matches against Denmark in Liege and Chile in Spain and the third stage from June 11 in Houston, United States. Only one stage was cancelled — the one in Kinshasa,” Kalemo said.
The Congo players and the team’s French coach, Sébastien Desabre, are based outside of the central African country, with most of them playing in France.
Kalemo said that some of the team staff who are based in Congo were “leaving in the next hours” on Wednesday.
A FIFA spokesperson told The New York Times that the organization is “aware of and monitoring the situation regarding an Ebola outbreak and is in close communication with the Congo DR Football Association to ensure that the team are made aware of all medical and security guidance.”
The White House World Cup task force, housed under the Department of Homeland Security, told The Associated Press that it is “coordinating closely” with various agencies on health and security matters and that the government is “closely monitoring” the outbreak.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said this week that the U.S. would ban the entry of all foreign nationals who had been in Congo, Uganda and South Sudan within the past three weeks. The ban lasts for 30 days.
“It’s been confined right now to Africa but it’s something that’s had a breakout,” U.S. President Donald Trump said about the Ebola outbreak on Monday while speaking to the press.
A U.S. official told The Associated Press the Congolese World Cup team would not be affected by the CDC entry ban because it had been training in Europe for the past several weeks.
Members of the Congolese World Cup delegation who did return to Congo during the 21-day period will be subject to the same quarantine requirements as U.S. citizens seeking to return from affected countries, according to the U.S. official.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand has said Canada currently has no plans to implement a travel ban but is closely monitoring the situation.
The Public Health Agency of Canada said it will continue to implement appropriate health protocols should a case be imported to Canada. It will also work with international and domestic partners from provinces and territories to inform their response and protect the health of Canadians.
Ebola disease is a severe, often fatal illness that affects humans and other primates, according to the WHO.
The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals, such as fruit bats, porcupines and non-human primates, including gorillas, monkeys and chimpanzees, and then spreads in the human population through direct contact with blood, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people and with surfaces and materials, such as clothing and bedding, contaminated with the fluids.
The Bundibugyo virus was first detected in Uganda’s Bundibugyo district during a 2007-08 outbreak that infected 149 people and killed 37. The second time was in 2012, in an outbreak in Isiro, Congo, where 57 cases and 29 deaths were reported.
The virus is spread the same way as other Ebola viruses: through close contact with sick or deceased patients’ bodily fluids, such as sweat, blood, feces or vomit. Health-care workers and family members caring for sick patients face the highest risk, experts said.
Dr. Isaac Bogoch, infectious diseases physician, told Global National that the virus is transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids, which reduces the likelihood of transmission compared to airborne viruses.
“We’ve seen measles imported to Canada and other infectious diseases, but I think the risk of Ebola would be extraordinarily small, but of course not zero per cent,” Bogoch said.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday that there are almost 600 suspected cases and 139 suspected deaths, and he expects those numbers will keep increasing.
He said he determined that the situation was “not a pandemic emergency, which is the new and highest classification under the amended International Health Regulations.”
Dr. Donald Vinh, an infectious disease physician, told Global News that global health officials worry about the conditions in which the Ebola outbreak is unfolding.
“There’s a significant risk of cross-border spread between the DRC and Uganda. The true scale of the outbreak is likely larger than our current estimate because of the ongoing transmission in the last few weeks, delayed detection and all of the uncertainty and instability in that area,” Vinh said, adding that the regional problem has the potential to expand even further.
The Bundibugyo strain of Ebola is different than the Zaire strain, and the current outbreak has very limited tools available for diagnosis and vaccines for public health containment, according to Vinh.
“Why that’s important is because the tools that were developed to diagnose the Zaire strain don’t necessarily work for the Bundibugyo strain. The vaccines that were developed for the Zaire strain are also not predicted to work for the Bundibugyo strain,” he said.
He said that the incubation period for the Bundibugyo strain is from two days to three weeks, which shouldn’t affect those players participating in the World Cup.
“Typically, it’s around four to 10 days, so it’s unlikely that people are going to be able to participate as participants or as players in this international soccer stage while they are infected, but they certainly can become symptomatic after travelling and they can transmit after they become symptomatic,” Vinh said.
“That’s where we have to be concerned … not the FIFA World Cup as much as it’s global travel anywhere around the world during the incubation period,” he added.
Vinh also noted a “very fragile health-care system” in the DRC and Uganda, where the outbreak is happening.
“It has crippled some of the measures that can be put into place quickly and that is why there’s a need now for the public health emergency declaration by the WHO.”
He said that if we can get past two incubation periods without any new cases, that’s when the outbreak will be under control.
“It’s been done before. It needs to be done again. But this is really a reflection that we cannot just react every time there’s an outbreak. We really need to be proactive globally to prevent these things from happening because if they happen in somebody else’s backyard, they can move to our front yard,” Vinh added.
On Wednesday, the WHO director-general said there are several factors that “warrant serious concern about the potential for further spread and further deaths.”
“First, beyond the confirmed Ebola cases, there are almost 600 suspected cases and 139 suspected deaths. We expect those numbers to keep increasing, given the amount of time the virus was circulating before the outbreak was detected,” he said.
The epidemic has also expanded, with cases reported in several urban areas, according to Ghebreyesus.
“Deaths have been reported among health workers, indicating healthcare-associated transmission,” he said, adding that there is “significant population movement in the area.”
“The province of Ituri is highly insecure. Conflict has intensified since late 2025, and fighting has escalated significantly over the past two months, with over 100,000 people newly displaced,” Ghebreyesus continued. “The area is also a mining zone, with high levels of population movement that increase the risk of further spread.”
—with files from The Associated Press
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