- El Salvador's Directorate General of Migration declared travellers from eight African countries, including Kenya, inadmissible over the active Ebola outbreak
- The ban was triggered by the Bundibugyo Ebola virus outbreak that originated in the DRC and has since reached Kenya, which has confirmed 9 cases
- CNN journalist Larry Madowo publicly disclosed that El Salvador denied his entry permit under the sweeping health restriction
El Salvador has imposed a formal entry ban on travellers arriving from or transiting through eight African countries, citing health concerns tied to the ongoing Ebola outbreak in East and Central Africa.
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The restriction was confirmed in an official resolution issued by the Directorate General of Migration, which declares nationals and travellers from Angola, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, and Uganda as inadmissible into El Salvador.
The legal authority for the ban rests on Article 13, paragraph 3, of the country's Special Law on Migration and Foreigners, which grants the Directorate powers to authorise or refuse entry.
The measure follows Official Letter No. 2026-6000-055, signed by Francisco José Alabi Montoya, El Salvador's Honorary Minister of Health, which states that "any person who comes from or has transited through the nations of the eight listed countries will be declared inadmissible and will be denied entry to the country."
Kenya's Ebola Situation
The ban is a direct response to the re-emergence of the Bundibugyo Ebola virus, which first surfaced in the DRC in April 2026 and spread to Uganda in May before being declared over in July.
The virus subsequently crossed borders again, with Kenya confirming its first imported case on October 6, 2026, in a traveller who had arrived from the DRC via Uganda. A second case followed on October 14, 2026.
As of October 20, 2026, Kenya's Ministry of Health has confirmed 9 cases, including 1 death. The eight surviving patients are reported to be stable. The latest confirmed case is a 24-year-old man, a close family member of the index patient, who was already in quarantine when symptoms appeared.
Kenyan health authorities maintain that all nine cases belong to a single known transmission cluster, with no evidence of wider community spread.
Contact tracing has reached 134 of 135 identified contacts, or 99.3%, surpassing the international benchmark of 85%.
WHO Guidance Versus El Salvador's Decision
El Salvador's policy runs counter to guidance from the World Health Organisation (WHO). Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus earlier this month advised against imposing travel or trade restrictions on Kenya, the DRC, and Uganda, stating that such measures were not justified by the available evidence.
The WHO has instead focused on scaling up Ebola readiness across 22 countries on three continents.
The resolution dated October 14, 2026, came to wider attention after CNN journalist Larry Madowo disclosed that his application for a Special Entry Permit had been denied under the ban, despite his documented travel history to El Salvador on record in the Migration Movements System.
"El Salvador denied my visa because Kenya reported Ebola cases even though authorities in Nairobi maintain that there's no widespread outbreak," Madowo said.
"They must think that everyone in Kenya and the region has Ebola." He also noted that the ban covers citizens of countries in the region "including many without any cases."
Source: TUKO.co.ke