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From Our Own Correspondent

Ebola in the DRC: Fear and Conspiracy Theories

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News Commentary, News

4.41.3K Ratings

🗓️ 6 June 2026

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Kate Adie introduces stories on Ebola in the DRC, Ukraine's stoic bus drivers, the rebirth of a river in Oregon, India's ethnic violence, and the return of the Griffon Vulture in Croatia.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is experiencing another outbreak of Ebola, but as the virus spreads so too have rumours and conspiracy theories about the cause of the pathogen. Olivia Acland reports from the border between North Kivu and Ituri provinces.

This week Ukraine came under one of the heaviest Russian assaults in months, with the country's energy infrastructure once again hit hard. Vitaly Shevchenko has been in Kherson, where he learned how public transport is now becoming a target for Russian drone operators too.

In America's pacific northwest we go rafting down the Klamath river which is flowing for the first time in a century after a dam was removed - but not without resistance from locals, finds Ash Bhardwaj.

Three years ago, the state of Manipur in India’s north-east erupted in violence, and hundreds of people were killed because of tensions between the Kuki and Meitei communities. Since then, the deeper causes of the conflict haven’t been resolved – and this year, communal violence has broken out again. Raghvendra Rao was there.

Off the coast of Croatia an island’s once dwindling griffon vulture population is back in full flight. Mary Novakovich met the people responsible for the revival, and learns of this bird's vital role in ecological waste management.

Series Producer: Serena Tarling Production Coordinators: Sophie Hill & Katie Morrison Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

0:05.4

Hello, today we're in Herson, where we meet the bus drivers

0:10.3

shuttling locals through the city every day, despite Russian drone attacks.

0:15.4

In Oregon, we're rafting down the recently restored Klamat River, but locals say property prices have been washed away.

0:23.9

Ethnic tensions escalate in the Indian state of Manipur between the Kuki and Meite people.

0:30.6

And finally, in Croatia, we're on the lookout for high-flying Griffin vultures,

0:35.6

now making a long-awaited comeback.

0:38.9

But first to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where an outbreak of the Ebola virus has spread rapidly.

0:45.7

Nearly 400 confirmed cases have been reported, having increased eight-fold in less than two weeks.

0:52.7

More than 60 people are now confirmed dead.

0:56.2

Although the DRC has experienced 16 Ebola outbreaks before, aid groups have warned this could be

1:02.6

the deadliest yet, with no vaccine to combat this particular strain.

1:08.0

Olivia Ackland was embedded with the Congolese army and travelled to the border between

1:12.5

North Kivu and Ditturi provinces, where many have been displaced by violent conflict, and the

1:19.2

insecurity is compounding Ebola relief and tracing. As we jolt along a mud track slicing

1:25.9

through the jungle, our fixer, a Congolese journalist Siros Moisa,

1:29.3

notices the worried expression on my face.

1:32.3

We'll be fine, he says, chuckling as he pats my arm.

1:36.3

We're embedded with the Congolese army and are hurtling ever deeper into the forests where ADF rebels lurk.

1:42.3

This rebel group, Congo's deadliest, has slaughtered more than

1:45.7

5,000 people in the past decade. Its fighters storm villages at night, hacking people to death

1:51.7

with machetes. Violence in the region has intensified, just as aid organisations have pulled back

...

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