Tribute: Dr. Charles Mbusa Munyumu – killed in action for neurosurgery

Abstract

On August 10, 2026, Dr. Charles Mbusa Munyumu died of Ebola virus disease in Butembo, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. He had contracted Bundibugyo virus while operating on a patient. He was 48, had qualified in neurosurgery in Dakar, and had returned home only months earlier. He was the antithesis of the brain drain: He acquired a rare skill abroad and deliberately brought it back to a population with almost no access to neurosurgical care, in a region marked by decades of armed conflict and recurrent epidemics. He knew the risk. He went anyway. This tribute records his life and the circumstances of his death, and calls for concrete support to African neurosurgery: Training, equipment, sustained partnerships, and protection for health professionals working in areas of conflict and epidemic.