A Driver’s Mysterious Final Hours Expose Congo’s Deep Ebola Fears
When a truck driver unexpectedly collapsed and died in a remote village, frontline medical staff scrambled to safely isolate his body, triggering a standoff.
Health workers transporting the body of Taylor Okito, a truck driver who died suddenly after vomiting blood, in the village of Marabo, one of the areas affected by the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
By Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Arlette Bashizi
Reporting from Marabo, a village in the Democratic Republic of Congo
New York Times
Sept. 9, 2026
The dead man lay in a pool of blood, a few yards from the truck that he had parked in the village.
Witnesses said the driver had stopped on a recent Friday night to repair a burst tire, intending to continue east the next day along the unpaved highway that connects the cities of Bunia and Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The next day, they saw him buy juice from a kiosk in the village, Marabo, and sit down on the broken tire. He stood up, staggered a few paces, collapsed and threw up blood, according to Etienne Sanyobo, the leader of the village youth council.
A crowd gathered to stare. Nobody knew who the man was. But they kept their distance. Vomiting blood can happen in the final stages of Ebola, and his blood was still seeping into the dirt.
“I heard that a driver died so I came,” said Esperance Nganabo, a mother of nine. “I don’t know how he died, but it’s important to fear Ebola.”
A large group of people, including many children, stand on reddish-brown dirt. They wear diverse colorful clothing. Some individuals have their hands near their mouths or faces. A large tree and water tank are the background.
A crowd watched the team of volunteer medical workers removing the body in Marabo. Nobody knew who the man was, and people kept their distance.
Several health workers in white protective gear and long red or yellow gloves gather near a green truck trailer in the background as the body of a person lies motionless on reddish-brown dirt. One person stoops near the body.
Health workers collecting a sample for Ebola testing from the body of Mr. Okito.
Dr. Duabo Musubi Desire received an emergency call at the nearby hospital in Nyankunde. Knowing the risk that the man’s body posed — Ebola victims remain contagious even after they have succumbed — he said he had to act quickly.
He ordered the immediate assembly of a team of trained volunteers.
What happened over the next 24 hours showed the challenges that health workers face as they confront Congo’s most serious Ebola outbreak ever. It also showed the professionalism of Congolese teams who risk their lives in the face of a virus that has killed more than 3,000 people.
When the health workers arrived, the man had been dead for less than 30 minutes. They donned protective gear and approached him cautiously. They sprayed the area with chlorine, took a swab of saliva from his mouth to be tested, gingerly zipped him into a white body bag and carried him to their pickup truck.
They also retrieved the man’s I.D. card from his pocket, giving it to a police officer. The card identified him as Taylor Okito, 34, born in the city of Goma on Congo’s eastern border.
Complications arose. The truck driver’s assistant, Patrick Muhindo, 25, had called the man’s colleagues to report the death and three men arrived on motorbikes. They demanded the body for burial. Health workers refused, saying the man needed to be taken to the hospital until his body had been tested for Ebola.
A person stands against a white truck carrying two green containers on a reddish-brown dirt road. Other people ride motorcycles nearby. Red-roof structures are off the side of the road.
Mr. Okito’s assistant, Patrick Muhindo, 25, leaning against the truck, called the man’s colleagues to report the death. Men arrived on motorbikes to demand custody of the body for burial.
ImageA child and other observers stand on a dirt road as a person wearing white protective hooded gear and blue gloves sprays a wooden structure with a mist.
A medical worker disinfected a bench where Mr. Okito was believed to have been sitting.
With no obvious resolution, the health workers consulted the village chief, Jean-Pierre Lemabo, who sided with them, arguing that the man’s body should only be released if it proved negative, for fear of contaminating the community.
A truck driver who had arrived from out of town and then died presented a worst-case scenario for health workers. Under Ebola protocols, the contacts of any infected person should be traced and placed under surveillance, or in quarantine. That was not possible under these circumstances. Even Mr. Muhindo, who was potentially infected, was wandering around in the village talking to people.
For more than an hour while the dispute unfolded, the body lay in the medical workers’ pickup truck, parked under a mango tree.
Resolving the dispute amicably was crucial. Health experts say that securing the consent of relatives and friends of Ebola victims is necessary because violating their wishes can breed mistrust and imperil medical staff.
The health workers, who had risked infection to retrieve the body, were determined to see Mr. Okito treated with respect.
“I wasn’t afraid because it’s my job as a rescuer to help everyone,” said Emile Yombe, a Red Cross volunteer who was part of the team that retrieved the body.
People in protective suits and gloves stand in a dirt clearing. One pours something from a green bucket into a white container. Another aims a sprayer at a person raising both arms.
Health workers disinfecting themselves after securing the body of Mr. Okito. When the first workers arrived, he had been dead for less than 30 minutes.
ImageA person in blue scrubs stands by a white vehicle with a red cross while holding a notebook toward a person, in a hat and dark clothing, whose arms are crossed.
Emile Yombe, in blue, a Red Cross volunteer, with an ambulance driver in front of Nyankunde General Hospital while waiting for the test results for Mr. Okito.
When the outbreak first began in Ituri province, Congolese health experts struggled to identify it as Ebola because the species of virus causing the current epidemic, Bundibugyo, is uncommon and requires a specific test.
Since then, the World Health Organization has distributed testing kits to many laboratories, enabling them to return results for Bundibugyo on site. Faster testing facilitates rapid triage, a crucial step toward containing the virus.
The test at the hospital came back negative for Ebola.
Some health experts have said that, while the rapid tests are reliable, false negatives happen and the copious bleeding in the minutes before Mr. Okito’s death pointed toward Ebola or another hemorrhagic fever.
“We worry about the risk of false negatives,” said Trish Newport, the head of the Ebola response in Ituri for Doctors Without Borders, the medical charity. She was speaking of Ebola testing overall, rather than a specific case.
The negative result meant that the hospital had no further involvement in the case and there would be no attempt to trace Mr., Okito’s contacts. “Now it’s negative, it’s up to the family to take the corpse,” said Dr. Kashindi Makuta Charles, the hospital’s medical director.
Mr. Okito’s colleagues transported his body to a private morgue in Bunia late that night, but workers there refused to accept it because it was zipped in a body bag, something only done for Ebola victims.
Their suspicion intensified when they opened the bag and found the body drenched in blood, said Thierry Mumbere, one of the friends.
They then took the body to the city’s main hospital, which accepted it.
ImagePeople gather around a brown coffin and an open grave. One person, appearing to be weeping, sits on grass. Another records with a phone while standing.
Thierry Mumbere, a friend, second from left, with relatives attending the funeral of Mr. Okito.
ImageSeveral people stand around a deep pit where two people are standing near a coffin. One person, in blue, raises a hand, seemingly in distress.
A mourner became distraught in the grave.
The next day, when family members and colleagues of Mr. Okito arrived at the hospital’s morgue to retrieve the body for burial, the mourners wanted to open the coffin and the body bag to check that it was indeed Mr. Okito inside. But they did not end up opening the coffin.
Even though the body had returned a negative test, health workers still drove the body to the cemetery. Their vehicle was followed by a phalanx of friends and colleagues on motorbikes.
Burials have emerged as a significant flashpoint in the Ebola outbreak. Sometimes families have attacked burial teams to gain access to coffins, which they then open for a last physical contact with the deceased. The practice violates health protocols and risks spreading the virus.
When Mr. Okito’s coffin arrived at the burial ground in the hills outside Bunia, a furious argument ensued.
After the health workers lowered the coffin into the ground, mourners then drove them off with threats of violence, shouting that they wanted to open the coffin to make sure their friend was really inside. A preacher delivered an impromptu message, urging honor for the deceased and praising his life.
Amid cries of protest from Mr. Okito’s family, two of his friends climbed into the open grave. It had only been a day since Mr. Okito had died. Despite the unknowable consequences, his coffin was unsealed.
ImageA blue cloth with yellow patterns hangs from a stick protruding from a mound of brown dirt bearing green leaves in a field.
Mr. Okito’s colleagues placed the national soccer team’s jersey on his grave.
Matthew Mpoke Bigg is the East Africa bureau chief for The New York Times, based in Nairobi, Kenya.
