— 2001/2002 —

In Gabon, the Ebola Zaire strain spread between October 2001 and May 2002 in the northeastern province of Ogooue-Ivindo, killing 53 victims among the 65 identified cases.

It was the fourth time this sparsely populated equatorial region was affected, and the virus also killed 44 people in neighbouring Republic of Congo.

Previous Ebola epidemics in Gabon, one in 1994 and two in 1996, left around 100 people dead.

— 2003 —

The Ebola Zaire strain struck the Republic of Congo again between January and April, killing 128 people of the 143 who were infected, for a mortality rate of 90 percent.

The virus was particularly virulent in the western Cuvette-Ouest region, near the border with Gabon among those who handled the carcasses of forest gorillas and chimpanzees that had perished from the virus.

In October 2003, another outbreak of the same species killed 29 more people.

— 2007 —

Once again, it was the Ebola Zaire species that killed 187 people in DRC among a total 264 identified cases. The haemorrhagic fever struck mainly between April and October in the central Kasai occidental region.

A year later, and again in 2012 the virus hit DRC, killing 73 people.

— 2014 —

Ebola was identified for the first time in west Africa, first in Guinea, then in neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone, before it was reported in Nigeria.

The epidemic has killed 1,427 people out of more than 2,600 known cases of infection, according to the UN World Health Organization.

The DRC also faced its seventh outbreak in August, said by the health minister to be separate from the west African epidemic.