Donald Trump Deflects Congo War Evidence by Asking an African Reporter 'How Is Ebola Going?'

President Donald Trump changed the subject from an Angolan reporter's Oval Office question about the Congo war on Monday by asking, 'How is Ebola going?', after she said Rwanda was still violating a US-brokered peace deal and that she had evidence, as the country faces its worst Ebola outbreak on record.

Angolan correspondent Hariana Verás, the first African journalist accredited to the White House, had praised Trump's peace efforts before telling him Rwanda was still violating the deal. She said she had visited Congo a month earlier and witnessed what she described as Rwandan forces killing Congolese civilians.

When Trump asked whether she had evidence, Verás said she did. He then changed the subject to Ebola. She replied that the outbreak was 'under control' but stressed that the war remained the bigger problem. Trump said he would make sure it worked out, then moved on.

The Question Trump Would Not Answer

Verás was pressing on the status of an agreement Trump has promoted as a major diplomatic achievement. The presidents of Congo and Rwanda signed the Washington Accords at the White House on 4 December 2025, building on a June 2025 deal between the two governments. State Department records call it a roadmap to end one of Africa's longest wars.

Enforcement has faltered. Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have kept advancing, and Verás said the fighting has displaced more than 7 million people. United Nations data place the number of people forced from their homes in the same range, among the largest displacement crises anywhere.

A Record Outbreak

The disease Trump raised is real and worsening. Congo reported 8,067 confirmed Ebola cases and 3,901 deaths as of 26 September, according to figures compiled from the Congolese health ministry and the World Health Organization. Ituri province accounts for most of them, with 6,155 cases and 2,834 deaths.

The WHO has called it the largest Ebola outbreak in Congo's history, and US health officials have described it as the second-largest Ebola outbreak on record after the 2014 to 2016 West Africa epidemic. It is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a strain with no approved vaccine or specific treatment, and about 48% of confirmed patients have died.

Where US Policy Comes In

Critics of Trump's administration say cuts to outbreak programmes weakened the response. House Democrats say the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development weakened disease surveillance in Congo, and Representative Frank Pallone said Americans could 'draw a straight line' from those cuts to the outbreak.

The White House and State Department reject that account. The State Department initially mobilised $23 million (£17 million) in emergency aid for Congo and Uganda in May, while the US had pledged a total of $886 million by September. The administration also asked Congress for roughly $1.4 billion (£1 billion) to fund the wider response.

What the Moment Left Unsaid

Trump said he would step in if officials confirmed Rwanda had breached the deal, repeating that he makes things work out. What went unanswered was Verás's claim that people are still dying in a war Washington promised to help end, and the wider concern over whether cuts to US-funded health programmes affected outbreak preparedness. A four-word question about Ebola spread online as a viral clip, but the war and outbreak she described are still unfolding.