War, Rumor, and Ebola in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): what’s the role of social media?

It is the tenth Ebola outbreak in forty years, and it is the worst DRC is experiencing. As of January 11, 2020, there has been 3,395 reported cases and 3,277 confirmed cases. So far, 2,235 people have died since the outbreak began in August 2018 (1). The fatality rate is 68%.

To compound the tragedy, the outbreak zone is also a war zone. This means aids workers are often caught in the crossfire between various groups fighting for resources and powers. Recently aids workers have become targets due to misinformation and mistrust in the government because the aids workers are seen as doing the government’s job. The fact that the previous minster of health was accused for pocketing aids funding only adds to the wariness and fuels the rumor mills. Many in the West blame social media, the tool that is giving the old-fashioned word-of-mouth gossip more mileage than ever (3,4). According Statista, the number of cellular subscription in DRC is about 40%; high enough to create an eco-system necessary for circulating canards that exploit fear, anger, and helplessness of the Congolese in the war zone (5).

In early December there was a spike in Ebola epidemic in DRC due to confluence of factors. Rumors spread through social media that foreign powers are using Congolese as tools in the vaccination and the West is profiting from the crisis by creating an epidemic. One woman says, “Westerners wanted to kill Africans and sell(s) vaccines for a disease that can be cured.” Another man says, “… during last night, helicopters flew low over the city of Lubero [a town in the North Kivu Province of DRC where fighting is happening] to inject its population with Ebola.” (2). The effectiveness of social media can’t be discounted; the question is how to use the power of social media to dispel misinformation and to convince people to vaccinate and to protect those who are healthy.

~~ You Jia Zhu

1. “DRC Ebola Outbreaks: Crisis Update – January 2020”, Medecins sans Frontieres, January 13, 2020.

2. Monica Villamizar, “How war and misinformation are complicating the DRC’s Ebola battle”, Publica Broadcasting Service, January 15, 2020.

3. Vittoria Elliott, “Ebola Responders in Congo Confront Fake News and Social Media Chatter,” The New Humanitarian, May 2, 2019.

4. Patrick Vinck, and Phuong N Pham, Kenedy K Bindu, Juliet Bedford, Eric J Nilles, “Institutional trust and misinformation in the response to the 2018–19 Ebola outbreak in North Kivu, DR Congo: a population-based survey,” The Lancet, vol. 19, May 2019, pp. 529-536.

5. David P. Fidler, “Disinformation and Disease: Social Media and the Ebola Epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” Blog Post for Council for Foreign Relations, August 20, 2019.