Rwanda says its border with DRC remains open

Rwanda's health minister said the border with Democratic Republic of the Congo remained open on Thursday, appearing to contradict an earlier statement that the frontier was closed near the Ebola-hit Congolese city of Goma. 

"The border was never closed and it is not closed,” Diane Gashumba told reporters as she sat next to the state minister of foreign affairs, Olivier Nduhungirehe, who earlier said it was shut. 

Slowdowns in traffic at the border had been caused by increased screening for Ebola not a shutdown, Gashumba said. 

The daughter of an Ebola patient in the eastern Congo city has contracted the virus, Congolese officials confirmed, the third case in a city of at least 1 million people that neighbours Rwanda.

Confirmation of the third case in Goma increased fears the virus could take root in the densely populated city, which is more than 350 km (220 miles) south of where the outbreak was first detected. 

The second case died after he sought treatment too late and was already bleeding, authorities said on Wednesday.

"The tests on a suspected case at the Goma Ebola treatment centre came out positive for the Ebola virus. Investigations are still underway around this ... case," Dr Aaron Aruna Abedi, who coordinates the Ebola response for Congo's Health Ministry, told Reuters on the phone.

After the first Ebola case in Goma was confirmed in mid-July, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak an international health emergency. 

It was earlier reluctant to do so, partly out of fear countries bordering Congo might shut their frontiers.

When declaring the emergency, WHO director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said explicitly that no country should close borders or impose any travel or trade restrictions.

"The Congolese authorities deplore this decision, which runs counter to the advice of the WHO (World Health Organisation)," on fighting the virus, the Congolese presidency statement said.