"Okay, there's Ebola in DRC, in Ituri, in the rural parts. Because Congo is big, it's not because you are from DRC you get Ebola immediately." That's FECOFA president Veron Mosengo-Omba cutting through the noise — and it's essentially the argument that got DR Congo's World Cup participation confirmed.
The Congolese football federation announced Wednesday that the national team and staff will comply fully with CDC and Canadian health protocols, clearing the path for the Leopards to compete in their first World Cup in 52 years. The key reason it works: virtually every player on the squad is based in Europe, meaning they don't fall under the U.S. and Canadian travel restrictions imposed on visitors from DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan in response to the active Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak currently centered in Ituri.
How they got around the restrictions
The federation wasn't just lucky here — they were proactive. A planned training camp in Kinshasa was scrapped entirely to avoid any complications with travel screening. Staff members who were based in-country departed DRC by May 20, allowing the full 21-day monitoring period to elapse before the tournament begins on June 11.
The Ebola situation in Ituri is genuinely serious. The WHO has recorded 906 suspected cases and 223 deaths, with a fatality rate for the Bundibugyo variant estimated between 30 and 50 percent. Containment efforts have been complicated by local communities who distrust international health workers — health centers have been burned, quarantined patients released, and the bodies of victims stolen. That context explains why the U.S. and Canada moved quickly on travel restrictions in the first place.
But DR Congo's squad isn't coming from Ituri. It's largely coming from European club football, which is a very different story.
The fans who won't be there
There's a real cost buried in all of this. Congolese fans who purchased tickets to attend games in the United States and Canada are still barred from traveling. The DRC government has formally asked FIFA to refund those tickets, which Mosengo-Omba acknowledged are "little bit expensive." FIFA has not yet responded publicly to that request.
On the pitch, the Leopards open Group K on June 17 against Portugal at Houston Stadium, with Uzbekistan and Colombia also in the group. Coach Sebastien Desabre, confirmed in his role on May 20, has a squad that needs to make the most of a historic moment — a World Cup return after more than five decades. DRC's odds of advancing from a group containing Portugal will be long, but stranger things have happened in group stages.
For now, they're in. Whether they can get out of the group is a different question entirely.
