Médecins Sans Frontières medical workers wearing personal protective equipment move through an isolated red zone to monitor patients, provide medical care and ensure hygiene at an Ebola treatment center in Munizi, Congo, June 2, 2026.
Jospin Mwisha | AFP | Getty Images
A year after Washington slashed international aid efforts, the deadly Ebola virus outbreak in Central Africa is being worsened by cuts to foreign aid from the United States and Western countries, experts say.
Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda declared an outbreak in May after laboratory tests detected the spread of the Bundibugyo virus, which causes a type of Ebola hemorrhagic fever. Ebola is a rare but serious disease that is transmitted through contact with infected body fluids, wild animals, contaminated objects or meat, and has a mortality rate of approximately 50%.
This is the 17th outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. More than 1,400 cases have been confirmed so far, making it the third-largest outbreak on record, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There are currently no known cases reported in the United States, but one case has been confirmed in France. According to the latest data from the CDC, 440 people have been confirmed to have died from the virus.
The International Rescue Committee, a global non-governmental organization focused on humanitarian aid, relief and development, warned near the beginning of the outbreak that the current outbreak could become the deadliest on record without urgent intervention.
“The red flags are flashing red,” Bob Kitchin, the IRC’s deputy director for emergencies, said in a statement, before pointing out that the Democratic Republic of the Congo faces a “more vulnerable and less prepared” situation in the current outbreak than during the 2018-2020 outbreak, which killed more than 2,000 people.
“Defenses have been dismantled at exactly the wrong time due to escalating conflict and cuts in global aid funding,” Kitchen said. “Risks are rising and resources are shrinking. This is the cruel calculus facing global aid today.”
The U.S. Agency for International Development was officially shut down last July, with most of its programs eliminated and some remaining absorbed into the U.S. Department of State. The move drew criticism from former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, as well as billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates.
USAID’s elimination was part of a workforce reduction effort by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a temporary organization created by President Donald Trump shortly after his return to the White House. Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, who initially oversaw DOGE’s operations, recently defended his decision to cut USAID following allegations that the agency was contributing to the deaths of children.
DOGE officially closed on July 4, 2026.
President Donald Trump holds a press conference with Elon Musk on Friday, May 30, 2025, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, to mark the end of the Tesla CEO’s term as special government official overseeing U.S. Department of State Services.
Tom Brenner Washington Post | Getty Images
But recent cuts to foreign aid programs are not limited to the United States. Last year, the charity Oxfam pointed out that G7 countries, which account for around 75% of all official development aid, were set to cut aid spending by 28% in 2026 compared to 2024 levels.
France’s foreign aid is expected to fall by about a third from 2023 onwards, according to a recently published analysis by researchers at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health. Germany will be down more than 36% and the UK will be down 45% compared to recent peak levels.
Virologist Angela Rasmussen is the scientific chair of the Save America Movement, a bipartisan activist group whose goal is to protect “American values,” including the Constitution, public health, the economy, and America’s status as a world leader.
She told CNBC in an email that foreign aid cuts are “clearly exacerbating” Central Africa’s Ebola crisis. She explained that cuts to critical infrastructure previously funded by USAID have led to increased violence and reduced carrying capacity in areas where outbreaks are occurring.
In early 2025, fighting broke out between Congolese authorities and a group led by the rebel militia M23. It culminated in the capture of Goma, an important city on the Rwandan border, and further exacerbated political violence across the country. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, Islamic State-linked groups have also carried out attacks in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where missile attacks and fighting between M23, Rwandan and Congolese forces and other militia groups remain common.
CfR says the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of the world’s largest and worst humanitarian crises, with one million Congolese people displaced and 21 million people still in need of emergency support, including medical aid and supplies.
A poster displaying Ebola emergency contact numbers is affixed to a tent at the Busunga border crossing between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Bundibugyo, May 18, 2026.
Badr Katumba | AFP | Getty Images
“The ongoing civil war and lack of well-developed transportation networks have restricted movement, and these funding cuts have seriously undermined confidence in humanitarian and medical aid workers, making contact tracing and treating Ebola patients difficult and, in some cases, dangerous,” Rasmussen told CNBC.
“Transportation backlogs are preventing existing USAID-funded medical supplies (basic supplies such as gloves, personal protective equipment, and body bags) from reaching the hardest-hit areas of Ituri.”
Rasmussen added that the loss of USAID-funded cold chain infrastructure meant that swab samples deteriorated during transportation to biomedical testing facilities, contributing to delays in virus detection.
“Confirmation of cases continues to be delayed significantly as the loss of USAID funding has depleted the health system’s supplies, equipment, facilities, and the staff to run them,” she said.
Jade Lee, an infectious disease expert and director of infectious diseases at Access Telecare, also told CNBC that cuts in foreign aid have “certainly” made it harder to contain the Ebola outbreak. He said USAID has traditionally been deeply involved in building health infrastructure in countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, from training health workers to recognize the signs and symptoms of diseases such as Ebola, to providing test kits and personal protective equipment, to helping transport samples to laboratories equipped to test and identify the Ebola virus.
“By dismantling USAID, cutting and withdrawing funding from the WHO, reducing staffing at the CDC, and cutting medical aid to the DRC, the Trump administration certainly contributed to the late detection and lack of control of this outbreak,” she said in an email.
CNBC reached out to the U.S. government for comment on the impact of foreign aid cuts.
“The United States has previously been involved in such outbreaks early on, deploying Epidemic Intelligence Service personnel to investigate outbreaks before they spread rapidly, quickly identifying the cause, appropriately isolating patients, and conducting contact tracing to ensure outbreaks are under control,” Lee said.
“Unfortunately, this time, U.S. public health and medical professionals were mobilized much later than in previous outbreaks, and U.S. funding to help control this outbreak will be less effective than it would have been had the USAID program remained in place.”
