Ebola cases in West Africa rises to 2,240

KINSHASA - The Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) confirmed on Sunday two Ebola deaths in the central African country's northern region.

"Two cases of Ebola virus are recorded in Djera," a remote region in the northwest province of Equateur, said Health Minister Felix Kabange Numbi on national television.

He said two out of eight cases tested positive for Ebola in an unidentified fever outbreak that killed 13 people this month in Equateur province.

The minister said the epidemic was contained in the region of Djera, and urged the local population to remain calm.

He also said the two cases detected in the region were not related to the epidemic in West Africa that has killed more than 1, 400 people.

"This epidemic has nothing to do with the one in West Africa," said the health minister.

Djera, which lies more than 1,200 kilometers from the capital Kinshasa, is the same region where the World Health Organization said Thursday 70 people were killed in an outbreak that it said was not Ebola-related.

The world's first Ebola case was detected in northern DR Congo in 1976. With Sunday's confirmation of new cases, it was the seventh outbreak of Ebola in DR Congo since then.