Congo’s soccer team has canceled a three-day World Cup preparation training camp and a planned farewell to fans in the capital Kinshasa because of an outbreak of Ebola in the east of the country.
Preparations will take place elsewhere after an outbreak of a rare type of Ebola known as Bundibugyo, which is thought to have killed more than 130 people and caused nearly 600 suspected cases.
The World Health Organization has declared it a public health emergency of international concern.
Congo is scheduled to play World Cup-warmup games against Denmark in Liege, Belgium on June 3 and Chile in southern Spain on June 9. Both matches are going ahead as planned, team spokesman Jerry Kalemo told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
“There were three stages of preparation: in Kinshasa to say goodbye to the public, Belgium and Spain with two friendly matches against Denmark in Liege and Chile in Spain, and the third stage from June 11 in Houston, United States. Only one stage was canceled – the one in Kinshasa,” Kalemo said.
All of the Congo players and the team’s French coach, Sébastien Desabre, are based outside of the central African country with most of them playing in France.
Some team staff who are based in Congo “are leaving in the next hours,” Kalemo said.
Soccer’s governing body FIFA issued a statement that “it is aware of and monitoring the situation regarding an Ebola outbreak and is in close communication with the Congo DR Football Association to ensure that the team are made aware of all medical and security guidance.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week that the U.S. would ban entry of all foreign nationals who had been in Congo, Uganda and South Sudan within the past three weeks. The ban lasts for 30 days.
A U.S. official said the Congolese World Cup team would not be affected by the CDC entry ban because it had been training in Europe for the past several weeks. That means team members, coaches and other officials who have not returned to Congo in the past three weeks would not be subject to the entry ban, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the policy has not been publicly announced.
Those members of the Congolese World Cup delegation who did return to Congo during the 21-day period will be subject to the same quarantine requirements as U.S. citizens seeking to return from affected countries, according to the official. That exception will not apply to Congolese fans who want to attend the World Cup, the official said.
The White House World Cup task force, housed under the Department of Homeland Security, stressed that it is “coordinating closely” with various agencies on health and security matters and that the government is “closely monitoring” the outbreak.
Congo, which qualified for the World Cup after winning a playoff tournament in Mexico, has been drawn in Group K. It faces Portugal for its opening game in Houston on June 17.
The Leopards then face Colombia in Guadalajara on June 23 before playing Uzbekistan in Atlanta for their final group game on June 27.
Congo’s first World Cup qualification since 1974, when it was called Zaire, sparked scenes of jubilation across the nation, which has been battered by decades of conflict.
___ Associated Press writers Matt Lee and Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.
___
AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup
