On 1 August 2018, the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) declared an outbreak of Ebola virus disease in the war-ridden North Kivu Province. While it is the 10^th time in the DR Congo (and Ebola is the name of a Congolese river), this is the first Ebola epidemic in the Eastern part of DRC.

While Ebola is not only a deadly disease which has killed over 11,000 people in West Africa few years ago, the Grand Nord, the epicenter of the epidemic, is a highly volatile area in the region. Ongoing conflict, heavy military intervention and internal displacement worsen the chronic problem of limited access to healthcare and large population movements due to strong trading ties within the province and with neighbouring Uganda shape the local context.

As is true for all global health crises, sociocultural, economic, and political dimensions play a crucial role during but also after the Ebola epidemic. For this reason, anthropological involvement has been increasingly recognized as important in the humanitarian response. In August/ September 2018, I was deployed with Unicef as a short-term consultant and in this talk I want to shed light on how anthropological expertise may address current challenges for the local population and the humanitarian response alike.

Program of the Colloquium