At least 10 people have died in a refugee camp near the centre of the Congo’s Ebola epidemic, raising fears of a new disease outbreak.

Officials at the Kigonze site in the Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are calling for an urgent medical investigation after eight children and two adults died over the course of 48 hours, local radio reported.

The victims did not display the haemorrhaging which is often a hallmark of Ebola, but the children had fevers and anaemia.

“We have not observed any signs of bleeding. Living conditions are extremely difficult,” the site manager told Radio Okapi.

Ituri has been riven by ethnic strife for decades. Clashes have waxed and waned over the years, but at their worst have seen tens of thousands killed and a total of nearly a million have fled their homes.

The region has long been preyed on by the Cooperative for the Development of Congo (CODECO) – a loose coalition of predominantly Lendu militias – and the Convention for the Popular Revolution (CRP), a rebel movement formed under Thomas Lubanga, a Ugandan convicted as a war criminal by the International Criminal Court.

Those sheltering in Kigonze had not received significant aid since 2021, officials said.

“If a disease or epidemic were to spread among the thousands of people living on this site, it would be a real catastrophe given our already very precarious living conditions,” warned the head of site management.

The Ebola outbreak in Ituri meanwhile continued to grow sharply.

Cases have grown by nearly 40 per cent in the past week, to around 900, and there have been 200 confirmed deaths from the viral haemorrhagic fever, according to Africa’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

The rare Bundibugyo species of the virus is thought to have been spreading for months below the radar before an outbreak was formally declared on May 15.

The virus’ head start, the conflict and mistrust among the local population have all left public health workers struggling to get to grips with the outbreak.

Experts earlier this week speculated the outbreak may become the largest ever recorded since Ebola was first discovered in 1976, and may take a year to get under control.

“We are still far from controlling the situation of this outbreak,” Dr Wessam Mankoula, a medical epidemiologist at Africa CDC, told Associated Press.

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