Ebola death toll passes 1,000 in DR Congo amid second deadliest outbreak in history

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Over 1,000 people have died in an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), one of the deadliest outbreaks of the disease in history.

With efforts to bring it under control hampered by civil war and mistrust, health minister Oly Ilunga said 1,008 lives have been claimed by the virus.

While the crisis is a long way off the 2014-2016 outbreak in West Africa’s Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, which killed more than 11,000, people experts warn its true extent in DRC is not clear.

“There might be double this many cases in reality that we’re just not aware of,” Tariq Riebl, emergency response director for the Ebola response crisis with the International Rescue Committee.

Despite the risk of spread across the highly porous borders with Uganda and