U.S. Aid Workers Quarantined at Contested Kenya Ebola Facility Amid Expanded Trump Travel Restrictions

Seven American aid workers are being held in quarantine at a newly established U.S. facility on a Kenyan air base, their employer confirmed on Friday. They are the first Americans to be monitored at the site, arriving even as the Trump administration unveiled a fresh Ebola-related travel ban this week.

The workers had been combating Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo and have displayed no signs of infection, according to Samaritan’s Purse, the disaster relief group that employs them. It remains uncertain whether their quarantine is voluntary.

Hundreds of Americans are nonetheless stranded in Congo following the July 13 travel ban, which bars entry to the United States for anyone who has recently been in the country, a federal official familiar with the matter said.

Around a dozen Americans were diverted to Fort Drum, a military installation in New York, after attempting to return via Canada this week, the official noted. Their length of stay and next destination are unknown.

The new measure represents a sharp break from prior administrations, which repatriated Americans exposed to Ebola for monitoring and treatment at advanced domestic facilities.

Two U.S. citizens who contracted Ebola in the current outbreak were both evacuated to hospitals in Germany.

The State Department and Health and Human Services Department did not respond to comment requests.

The World Health Organization confirmed a Bundibugyo virus outbreak—a Ebola variant—in Congo in mid-May, though transmission likely began months earlier. As of Wednesday, WHO reported over 2,000 confirmed cases and 820 deaths. If unchecked, it may become the worst outbreak on record.

Franklin Graham, head of Samaritan’s Purse, stated the unnamed workers will remain in Kenya for 21 days, matching the virus’s incubation period.

“They are being housed in large military tents in a fenced-in, graveled area, sleeping on military cots, and their food is being provided by the U.S. military,” he said.

The seven are the first Americans monitored at the U.S.-built site at Laikipia Air Base in central Kenya, erected swiftly under a bilateral agreement earlier this year.

In June, hundreds in nearby Nanyuki protested the facility; three died when security forces suppressed the demonstrations.

Kenya’s high court ordered a construction halt in June and barred admission of virus-exposed individuals under the U.S. accord.

The Katiba Institute, which sued over the base, said Friday that transferring foreigners there under the deal would be an “absolute outrage” and “flagrant and dangerous defiance of the court order.”

In May, the administration used Title 42 to block immigrants from Congo, Uganda and South Sudan. The ban later covered permanent residents from those nations.

U.S. citizens were initially exempt, despite Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s May pledge to “not allow any cases of Ebola to enter the United States.”

This week, the ban was extended to citizens, including scientists and aid staff, who must now quarantine abroad for 21 days before returning.

Several health experts called the bans scientifically unfounded.

“The Trump administration’s decision to further complicate U.S. travelers’ return from a country facing an Ebola outbreak blatantly ignores the world-class infectious diseases care available right here at home,” said Dr. Ronald G. Nahass, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

“This policy will likely deter Americans from traveling to the Democratic Republic of Congo to help stop the largest outbreak of this deadly disease in history,” he added.

It is unclear if the administration will cover quarantine or rerouting costs. Currently, travelers turned back under the bans receive no reimbursement.

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