DR Congo's World Cup Plans Disrupted by Ebola Outbreak
The Democratic Republic of the Congo will head to their first World Cup in half a century without the farewell they had planned for their own people.
A three-day training camp and public goodbye in Kinshasa has been cancelled after an outbreak of a rare strain of Ebola – Bundibugyo – in the east of the country. The virus has been linked to more than 130 deaths and nearly 600 suspected cases, prompting the World Health Organization to declare a public health emergency of international concern.
For Sébastien Desabre and his squad, it means preparation under the shadow of a national crisis, and at a distance from home.
Farewell scrapped, schedule reshaped
The plan had been clear. First stop: Kinshasa, a final embrace with the public. Then Europe, with warm-up matches in Belgium and Spain. Finally, Houston, the launchpad for a long-awaited World Cup return.
Only the first chapter has been torn up.
“There were three stages of preparation: in Kinshasa to say goodbye to the public, Belgium and Spain with two friendly matches … and the third stage from 11 June in Houston. Only one stage was cancelled – the one in Kinshasa,” team spokesman Jerry Kalemo said.
The rest of the schedule holds. The Leopards will face Denmark in Liège on 3 June and Chile in southern Spain on 9 June, fixtures that now carry even more weight as the only on-pitch tune‑ups before they land in the United States. Their World Cup opener comes against Portugal in Houston on 17 June.
All of Desabre’s players, and the French coach himself, are based outside the country, many of them in France. That has simplified one crucial issue: travel. Some staff members who live in DR Congo “are leaving in the next hours”, Kalemo said, as the federation races to get the entire delegation out cleanly and safely.
Ebola, borders and a World Cup on alert
Football cannot pretend this outbreak sits in a separate world. It is already reshaping borders.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced this week that the United States will bar entry to all foreign nationals who have been in DR Congo, Uganda or South Sudan in the previous three weeks. The 30-day ban slices across travel plans, but the national team has avoided the worst of it.
A US official confirmed that the players and coaching staff will not be affected because they have been training in Europe for several weeks. Anyone in the World Cup delegation who has not been in DR Congo in the last 21 days falls outside the ban.
Those who did return home during that period will face the same quarantine rules imposed on US citizens coming back from affected countries. That carve-out stops at the team hotel door. Fans hoping to follow the Leopards to the United States will not benefit from any exception.
Fifa, alert to the optics and the risks, issued a statement saying it “is aware of and monitoring the situation regarding an Ebola outbreak and is in close communication with the DRC football association [Fecofa] to ensure that the team are made aware of all medical and security guidance.”
Inside the US government, the White House World Cup taskforce, operating under the Department of Homeland Security, has underlined that it is “coordinating closely” with health and security agencies and “closely monitoring” the outbreak as the tournament nears.
A long road back to the world stage
On the pitch, DR Congo arrive in the United States as one of the tournament’s stories. They reached the finals by beating Jamaica in a playoff in Mexico, a tense, defining step that sealed their place in Group K.
Portugal await first in Houston on 17 June. Then come Colombia in Guadalajara on 23 June and Uzbekistan in Atlanta on 27 June. For a nation absent from the World Cup since 1974, when the team played under the name Zaïre, each date carries its own history.
Desabre’s 26-man squad blends Premier League and European experience with the hunger of a generation denied the spotlight for too long. Newcastle forward Yoane Wissa, Sunderland midfielder Noah Sadiki and West Ham full-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka headline a group asked to carry both sporting ambition and national emotion.
There has already been one enforced change. Hibernian centre-back Rocky Bushiri, initially named in the squad, has withdrawn with a suspected achilles injury. His place goes to another Scottish Premiership player, Kilmarnock’s Aaron Tshibola, who steps into a defensive unit that will be tested early and often.
New power at Fecofa
Away from the touchline, DR Congo’s football landscape has shifted as well.
Véron Mosengo-Omba, the former general secretary of the Confederation of African Football, has been elected president of Fecofa. Unopposed, he collected 60 of a possible 65 votes, moving into the role just months after stepping down from Caf in March following a five-year stint.
A long-time ally of Fifa president Gianni Infantino – the pair are university friends – Mosengo-Omba followed him from Uefa to Fifa in 2016 before heading to Caf in 2021. Now he takes charge of a federation trying to navigate a World Cup return in the middle of a public health emergency.
The Leopards will fly to the United States without the roar of Kinshasa ringing in their ears, but with a country watching from afar, gripped by something far more serious than football. How they carry that weight on to the world stage will define more than just their results.
