By Sidney Phillips | Development Associate
In the spring of 2026, a rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola spread through the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda, triggering the World Health Organization to declare an international health emergency and prompting a global health response to contain the outbreak and support local healthcare systems.
Since launching our response in May 2026, Airlink has strengthened the movement of critical humanitarian supplies into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), enabling frontline partners to overcome some of the most persistent and costly logistics barriers affecting the Ebola response.
By providing low and no-cost airlift, as well as logistics expertise, Airlink has ensured that urgently needed aid reached impacted areas in the DRC and Uganda, including personal protective equipment (N95 masks, gowns, gloves, boots); safe and Dignified Burial Kits; and medical supplies. To date, Airlink has delivered 66 metric tons of aid cargo across 9 nonprofit partners, helping an estimated 14 million people.
Airlink deployed a combination of regional charter flights, end-to-end, multimodal (i.e. airlift and trucking) transportation, and international airlift to overcome supply chain challenges standing in the way of resourcing local communities. We provided this critical transport support to 9 community-trusted, vetted non-profit partners with decades of experience responding to health emergencies and humanitarian crises in eastern DRC – utilizing one of three modalities.
Airlink coordinated charter flights from Nairobi, Kenya, directly to Bunia in Eastern DRC for urgently needed humanitarian cargo. This model maximized the value of Airlink's aviation partnerships by leveraging donated international airlift from Qatar Airways to transport partner cargo from various international origins into Nairobi. Airlink then consolidated cargo from multiple NGOs and utilized charter capacity at lower, negotiated rates from Astral Aviation for onward transportation from Nairobi to Bunia.
The flights transported urgently needed supplies and facilitated the opening of new Ebola Treatment Units (ETUs). By moving cargo by air directly into the DRC, this model reduced reliance on lengthy and operationally complex overland routes, significantly improving the speed and predictability with which supplies reached frontline responders.
Airlink facilitated end-to-end shipments for NGO partners requiring more comprehensive logistics assistance – combining donated airlift into Entebbe, Uganda with overland transportation into Bunia, DRC, and surrounding provinces. This support proved particularly valuable for smaller and locally focused NGOs that lack financial resources, relationships with local transport and customs providers, or necessary staff capacity to independently manage complex last-mile movements into the DRC.
Airlink coordinated both international air transportation and onward ground movement, enabling participating partners to access a comprehensive logistics solution from point-of-origin, through final delivery. This model worked to ensure that an organization's size or internal logistics capacity did not prevent life-saving supplies from reaching communities affected by the outbreak.
Airlink facilitated approximately shipments of humanitarian cargo to Entebbe International Airport in Uganda, a key regional entry point for humanitarian operations supporting Eastern DRC. This model primarily supported medium and larger humanitarian organizations with the capacity to independently coordinate onward transportation from Entebbe. Once aid arrived, our partners managed last-mile transportation through their own logistics networks. By subsidizing the international airlift portion of these shipments, Airlink removed the costliest transportation expense in the supply chain, while allowing partners with established regional logistics capacity to retain responsibility for the final stage of delivery.
Currently, the outbreak has reached over 6,600 cases and the WHO has estimated that 5,000 more workers and 1,600 more treatment beds are needed to control the outbreak. Airlink continues to actively process requests from our nonprofit partners to send aid into the DRC and Uganda, with 5 shipments of 25 metric tons of aid in our pipeline.
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