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Somse's warning comes one week after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the DR Congo outbreak a "public health emergency of international concern" after the threat of the highly infectious spread in a big city and in neighboring countries. Ebola leads to haemorrhagic fever, causing acute vomiting and diarrhea and, in severe cases, organ failure and unstoppable bleeding. It's often fatal. Although no cases of Ebola have been reported in CAR so far, "economic and human exchanges" at the border between the two countries "are very intense," he said. Mr. Somse at a press conference. "Our farmers are selling their cattle in DR Congo," he said. "Rebel groups and poachers come and go across the border. The risks [of infection] are high."
Mr Somme said that 380 health workers had been trained in Ebola care, but that health officials had recently reported "weaknesses in the alert mechanism".
The CAR must "formulate a complex response to an underfunded health system," the country's representative to the WHO, Severin Von Xylander, told reporters.
Although rich in natural resources, the former French colony is one of the poorest and most unstable nations in the world.
The CAR has been under fire since 2003, when former President François Bozizé took power by a coup d'etat.
The unrest has forced millions to flee their homes and about 400,000 have migrated to neighboring countries, including the DRC.
The Ebola outbreak in DR Congo has infected more than 2,500 people and killed more than 1,700 since its first detection last August.
It is the second deadliest ever recorded after the 2013-2016 outbreak in West Africa, which killed more than 11,300 people.
A case was reported in Goma, a town of more than one million residents at the Rwandan border, earlier this month, raising fears of a possible spread in Central and East Africa. .
On Thursday, Saudi Arabia announced the suspension of visas for Muslim pilgrims from the DRC facing the resurgence of the epidemic, according to AFP.
Muslims perform the hajj pilgrimage in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, once a year.
"The Saudi authorities have confirmed that no visas would be issued to the citizens of the DRC," AFP Sheikh Ali Mwinyi N'kuu, the country's largest Muslim leader, told AFP.
"The Saudi Minister of Religious Affairs explained in a letter that he could not put millions of people in danger of contamination.
"I am saddened by the measure, but I accept this decision because no risk can be accepted," he added.
Efforts to contain the deadly disease have been hampered by widespread mistrust of health workers and violence by armed militias.
Treatment centers were attacked and relief agents killed due to the hostility of some local communities with regard to medical teams and widespread rumors that the disease would be a hoax.
However, a mbadive campaign of vigilance and vaccination, with nearly 75 million screenings, has so far managed to keep the virus almost entirely confined to two provinces in north-eastern DRC.
The WHO however pointed out that hundreds of millions of dollars were immediately needed to prevent the epidemic from becoming uncontrollable.
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