AKIPRESS.COM - The numbers of people who have died in the current Ebola outbreak in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo has reached the 2,000 mark, government figures show, BBC reports.

The health authorities have struggled to contain the spread of the virus.

Neighbouring Uganda said that a nine-year-old girl with Ebola who had crossed the border had died.

The World Health Organization has called the situation one of the world's "most complex humanitarian crises".

This outbreak, in the east of DR Congo, is the second largest on record with the number of cases now exceeding 3,000, according to the government.

The largest was the epidemic that ravaged parts of West Africa from 2014 to 2016, killing more than 11,000 people.

In Uganda, the girl with Ebola was isolated and transferred to an Ebola treatment unit where she later died. She is reported to have crossed the border with her mother, who was put into an isolation unit until she can be repatriated.

Uganda has maintained largely successful screening centres along its border with DR Congo in an effort stop the outbreak crossing the frontier.