Congo's South Kivu province is at the epicenter of the world’s latest mpox outbreak, in what the World Health Organization has called a global health emergency.

Health officials have zeroed in on Kamituga, a remote yet bustling gold mining town of some 300,000 people that attracts miners, sex workers and traders who are constantly on the move. Cases from other parts of eastern Congo can be traced back here, officials say, with the first originating in the nightclub scene.

World Health Organization (WHO) indicates that Congo has reported over 21,000 of the 25,093 confirmed and suspected Mpox cases in Africa for 2024. In the recent outbreaks, more than 720 people have died,

Mpox outbreaks in Congo pose global health emergency, spreading in conflict-ridden areas with limited healthcare access.