Rwanda on high alert as Ebola reaches border city

Rwanda has added more personnel at the border between Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Gisenyi in Rwanda, to help screen people crossing over, Health Minister Diane Gashumba told journalists on Monday.

The first Ebola case has been confirmed in Goma, a city of nearly two million people, which has no hard border between it and Gisenyi in Rwanda, except at the official crossing points.

Many people might work, or study, on one side of the border and live on the other, crossing twice each day.

DR Congo is in the midst of an Ebola outbreak that began last August and has already become the second-deadliest in the country’s history, infecting nearly 2,500 people and killing more than 1,600.

Ms Gashumba, who rushed to Gisenyi on Monday, said Rwanda had not closed its border but urged people to exercise caution.