A health worker takes the temperature of a traveller after arriving in Bimbo district south-west of Bangui, on October 28, 2026. (Photo by AFP)
Bangui, Central African Republic: The Central African Republic has enforced strict frontier controls and daily health screenings for border travelers as the Democratic Republic of Congo faces the deadliest Ebola epidemic on record.
With the vast majority of the 10,000 cases recorded to date in Africa's latest outbreak of the deadly virus having been logged in the DRC, officials in the Centrafrican capital Bangui are worried about the disease spilling over the Oubangui river dividing the two nations.
At the M'Poko Bac pier, in the Bimbo district southwest of the capital, travellers who have just crossed the river from the DRC wash their hands under the watchful eye of a health worker, before having their temperature taken.
"Passengers arriving by canoe dock at the entry point. Then they disembark one at a time," explained Maldiana Bagalama, tasked with health screening at the site.
"One of our colleagues is there to direct them to the hand-washing station. Next, we brief them on the situation, then direct them to the tent for temperature checks and registration," Bagalama added.
Fears that an outbreak which has killed almost 5,000 people will reach the CAR are fuelled by the presence of the virus in the three Congolese regions bordering the country.
On top of that, the DRC and CAR share a porous and largely unmonitored frontier stretching for more than 1,500 kilometres (930 miles).
While the DRC is the epicentre of the outbreak, the virus has nonetheless spread to several other regions on the continent, with several cases reported in Kenya and one detected as far west as Nigeria.
Ebola, transmitted through contact with bodily fluids and which causes a severe haemorrhagic fever, has already claimed more than 15,000 lives in Africa over the past 50 years.
Despite the risks, economic activity continues apace along the Oubangui river.
Fishermen, canoe operators, sellers of fresh fish and many others all depend on the vital waterway linking between the two countries.
