An expanding Ebola outbreak in the northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has prompted neighboring Uganda to halt all flights and public transport to and from the country, as well as suspend weekly markets in western Uganda, though cross-border transport of food and goods remains permitted, Bloomberg reported May 22. Rwanda also barred entry to foreign nationals arriving from Congo. This follows reports from Congolese authorities that Ebola-related fatalities in the country had reached 160 as of May 21, and an incident near Bunia where angry residents set fire to an Ebola treatment center after medics refused to release a deceased victim's body.

On May 17, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda was a global health emergency. There are currently no vaccines or therapeutics for the Bundibugyo strain behind the outbreak, which is thought to have a death rate of up to 50%. Authorities were slow to detect the Ebola outbreak because they were initially testing for a different strain (Ebola-Zaire).