The health zone of Rethy in Ituri province the Democratic Republic of the Congo has seen an upsurge of plague cases since June 2020 The first case a 12 year old girl reported to a local health centre on 12 June experiencing a headache fever cough and an enlarged lymph node She died on the same day and further deaths from the community due to suspected cases of plague were subsequently reported From 11 June though 15 July six out of 22 health areas have been affected within Rethy health zone 11 villages with a total of 45 cases including nine deaths case fatality rate 20 All nine 9 cases who died presented with signs of headache high fever and painful nodes four 4 out of the nine 9 cases had cough