Ebola Curbs Shut Uganda–DRC Border Markets, Traders Face Livelihood Crisis

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:18][music] [music] >> We have a problem. We have a problem. We sell perishable goods. The tomatoes are all here rotten and they told us that the market is closed when we have already stocked. If they had told us before, but the communication came in late.

[00:01:11]I have eight children and this is where I fend for them from. I have nowhere else. The government should help us and open the border to the Congolese. They come and we wash our hands and follow the procedures so that we can sell our goods.

[00:01:48]I'm scared and psychologically tortured.

[00:01:51]How will I take care of my children? I buy tomatoes from Uganda and sell them to Congo to survive. Even other women cross the border from Uganda to sell onions, brooms, and oil to care for their children. If we don't work together, we are all dead.

[00:02:26]>> [music] >> Weekly markets which bring in too many people.

[00:02:49]>> Weekly markets which bring in so many people, those ones are suspended. We can only have the people open their shops regularly and take the safety precautions, those ones are okay.

[00:03:00]>> And they take the safety measures, safety precautions, those ones are okay.

[00:03:37]So, if we picked a sample from a suspect, it is tested in the lab. In the next 4-5 hours, we should know results to determine whether we continue to leave that past patient around or otherwise.

[00:03:49]But, we've been guided recently that if people turn positive, then we shall have them transported to Kampala as only treatment unit.

[00:03:59]>> [music]