Woman with Ebola in Nigeria confirmed as wife of Swiss diplomat

Switzerland's foreign ministry has confirmed that the woman who has tested positive for Ebola in Nigeria is the wife of a Swiss diplomat.

The woman, a 42-year-old Ugandan-born national who lives in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, tested positive for the virus on 20 October, becoming the country's first confirmed Ebola patient in more than a decade.

They both travelled to Uganda earlier this month. Her husband is currently in isolation but has not developed any symptoms, according to the Swiss foreign ministry.

The ministry told the BBC that all 25 staff at its embassy in Nigeria were in good health and did not need to isolate.

The ministry said the woman had spent about a week at a private clinic in Abuja with symptoms before her diagnosis.

It believes she contracted the virus while travelling in Uganda, although health authorities have yet to establish the source of her infection.

Uganda borders Democratic Republic of Congo, where some 4,600 have died in the country's most deadly outbreak of Ebola. Two people died in Uganda shortly after the outbreak began in May but it has been declared free of Ebola since August.

The ministry said the decision not to isolate the embassy's eight Swiss and 17 local employees was taken in consultation with Nigeria's Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO).

It added that the embassy remained open and operational, with health and safety measures in place.

The woman is receiving treatment in isolation and is showing signs of improvement, according to the WHO.

She returned to Nigeria on 3 October after spending about two and a half weeks in Uganda.

The patient did ​not travel to DR Congo, the Swiss ‌government told Reuters news agency on Friday, contradicting accounts from Uganda.

She developed symptoms four days after arriving in Abuja and sought treatment at two private health facilities before testing positive for Ebola on 20 October.

Health officials are now investigating whether she may have crossed paths with a Kenyan man who died from Ebola and had travelled through Uganda's main airport on the same day.

Investigators are examining whether they could have been exposed through shared equipment or other contact, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said on Thursday.

Dr Wessam Mankoula, the agency's head of emergency preparedness and response, said this was "one of the possible scenarios", but stressed that no link had been established.

"One of the issues we are currently investigating has been some sort of interaction between the two cases at the airport," he told journalists.

The Kenyan man had travelled from DR Congo through Uganda before arriving in Nairobi on 3 October. He died shortly afterwards, becoming Kenya's first recorded Ebola death.

Kenya has since confirmed nine infections, including the fatal case.

Although both patients passed through Entebbe airport on the same day, health officials have not established whether they met, used the same facilities or had any other contact.

Investigators are also examining whether the two infections could have a common source.

The WHO said it was too early to determine where the woman in Nigeria became infected.

"The source of exposure is still not known. The travel history of the patient is still being pieced together," said Dr Patrick Otim, a WHO emergency response official.

He said investigators had struggled to obtain a complete account of her movements because opportunities to interview her were limited while she remained in hospital.

Nigeria's Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) said it was carrying out genomic sequencing, which could help establish whether her infection is linked to other cases.

"The investigation is reconstructing the full travel and exposure history. Genomic sequencing is given a high priority," said Dr Pavel Ursu, the WHO's representative in Nigeria.

Ugandan health officials previously said the woman had travelled to eastern DR Congo for business.

However, the WHO, Africa CDC and Nigeria's health ministry said they had not received verified information confirming that she had visited the country.

Uganda has maintained that it has no confirmed active Ebola cases and says the woman's travel through the country does not necessarily mean she contracted the virus there.

Meanwhile, Nigerian authorities are tracing more people who may have been exposed to the woman, beyond the 44 contacts initially identified.

Kenya's Health Director-General Dr Patrick Amoth said all nine confirmed infections were linked to the first patient, with no evidence of wider community transmission.

He urged the public to remain vigilant and not panic but warned: "We are not out of the woods".

He said the remaining eight patients were still in isolation and responding well to treatment.

The developments have renewed concerns about the movement of infected people across international borders, particularly between DR Congo and neighbouring Uganda, where thousands cross daily for trade, work and family visits.

Dr Otim warned that the long and porous border between the two countries made it difficult to screen everyone entering or leaving, as many people used unofficial crossing points.

The WHO's regional director for Africa, Dr Mohamed Janabi, called for "regional vigilance" and urged countries to strengthen surveillance, investigate infections and protect frontline health workers.

Ebola is a serious viral disease that spreads through direct contact with the blood or other bodily fluids of an infected person, or with contaminated objects. It does not spread through the air like flu.

The virus can cause fever, severe weakness, vomiting and diarrhoea, and can be fatal. People are not considered infectious before they develop symptoms.

Health authorities say tracing contacts quickly, isolating suspected cases and providing early treatment are crucial to preventing further transmission.

BBC    

Video - Nigeria confirms first Ebola case amid regional outbreak

Nigeria has confirmed its first Ebola case since 2014. The patient is a woman who recently travelled from Uganda and later tested positive in Abuja. Health authorities have begun contact tracing, identified 44 contacts for monitoring, and urged healthcare facilities nationwide to strengthen surveillance and infection-control measures as the outbreak spreads across Africa.

CGTN Africa

Related story: Nigeria’s first Ebola case matches DR Congo strain

Grammy-winning Burna Boy launches first sneakers with Swiss tennis legend Roger Federer-backed On, priced up to $180

 

Grammy-winning Nigerian musician Burna Boy is launching his first sneaker collection with On, expanding his partnership with the Swiss sportswear company into products priced at up to $180. The collection consists of three shoes spanning tennis-inspired footwear, everyday wear and On’s signature cushioned sneaker category.

The Roger Clubhouse BB is priced at $150, while the Cloudtilt Remix costs $170. The most expensive shoe in the collection is the red Cloudmonster BB, which carries a retail price of $180.

The shoes are scheduled to go on sale on Thursday, 22 October, through On’s website and selected retailers. They will be available in unisex sizes.

According to On’s official retail platform⁠, the collection brings together Burna Boy’s music and cultural influence with the company’s sportswear technology. Its product listings describe the range as connecting sport and music while placing Burna Boy’s branding on established On designs.

The launch follows a multi-year partnership announced by On⁠ on 4 September 2025. The company said Burna Boy would collaborate on products and experiences spanning sport, culture and creativity, although the financial terms were not disclosed.

From Afrobeats to global footwear

Burna Boy, whose real name is Damini Ogulu, is one of Africa’s most internationally recognised musicians. The Nigerian artist won the Grammy Award for Best Global Music Album in 2021 for Twice as Tall and has built an audience extending beyond Africa through recordings, international tours and partnerships with global brands.

His debut footwear collection includes a white version of The Roger Clubhouse, a tennis-inspired shoe bearing the name of Roger Federer. The design has a leather upper, tonal laces, a marble-effect outsole and embroidered On x Burna Boy branding.

The Cloudtilt Remix comes in a dark brown colourway and is positioned for walking and everyday use. The Cloudmonster BB is presented in a bold Sienna red and uses On’s CloudTec cushioning, Helion foam and Speedboard technology.

The collection represents the commercial phase of a partnership that initially introduced Burna Boy as On’s symbolic “Clubhouse President” for its tennis campaign. The original campaign combined tennis with Nigerian-inspired imagery, music and fashion.

Federer’s connection to On

On was established in Switzerland in 2010 by Olivier Bernhard, David Allemann and Caspar Coppetti. The company sells footwear, clothing and accessories in more than 90 countries and is publicly traded in New York.

Federer joined On in 2019 as an investor and “co-entrepreneur”, rather than under a conventional athlete-sponsorship agreement. The retired Swiss player, who won 20 Grand Slam singles titles, has worked with the company on product development, marketing and its tennis business.

Burna Boy’s collection consequently connects one of Africa’s biggest musical exports with a Swiss company seeking to expand beyond specialist running shoes into lifestyle, tennis, apparel and other sporting categories.

On said in September that it was targeting net sales of at least CHF5.6 billion—nearly $7 billion—by 2029. It identified sneakers, running products and apparel as important drivers of that expansion, alongside its planned entry into football and golf.

By Ayodeji Adegboyega, Business Insider Africa

Nigeria’s first Ebola case matches DR Congo strain

Nigerian health officials say test results have confirmed the country’s first case of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which is behind a major outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), marking the disease’s first spread to West Africa in the current outbreak.

The case involves a woman who travelled from Uganda to the capital, Abuja, on October 3, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) said.

She was tested for Ebola on October 19 after health officials learned she had recently travelled to Uganda, one of the countries affected by the current outbreak. Officials confirmed the positive result on Tuesday.

“We did three levels of tests, but all molecular. The strain was Bundibugyo,” Olajumoke Babatunde, director of the public health laboratory service at the NCDC, said on Wednesday.

The World Health Organization (WHO) also confirmed the strain, for which there is neither a vaccine nor a specific treatment.

‘Multi-organ failure’

An unnamed official told the AFP news agency that the woman is a diplomat whose condition has deteriorated into “multi-organ failure”.

Ayoade Alakija, a Nigerian physician who co-chairs a G7 committee for investment in global health, said that it had taken 12 days since the woman fell sick for her to be tested for Ebola, potentially exposing many other people to the infection.

Nigerian authorities have identified 44 contacts, most of them healthcare workers. They include the patient’s husband, a Swiss national, who lives with her in Abuja.

Officials are also tracing passengers who travelled with her from Uganda to Nigeria but do not believe she was symptomatic during the flight.

Health Minister Muhammad Ali Pate told public broadcaster NTA that the woman was in isolation and receiving treatment.

Earlier cases

In 2014, the first Nigerian case, detected in Lagos, raised fears the virus would spread rapidly, but it was brought under control within three months, resulting in 20 infections and eight deaths.

That epidemic killed more than 11,000 people across West Africa between late 2013 and 2016.

The WHO says Nigeria is the fifth country to detect the virus in the outbreak, which this past week widened across the continent, with Kenya in the east reporting nine cases since October 6.

Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Director-General Jean Kaseya said on X on Wednesday that the outbreak was “no longer one country’s fight”, and that he would hold a meeting of Africa’s health ministers next week to strengthen the cross-border response and review hospital capacity.

The DRC is the epicentre of the outbreak, its deadliest on record.

There have been more than 9,000 Ebola cases and more than 4,000 deaths there since mid-May.

Al Jazeera

Mexican cartels target Nigeria as US crackdown squeezes drug routes

The United States has warned that Mexican drug cartels are seeking to turn Nigeria into a manufacturing base for methamphetamine and use West Africa as an alternative trafficking corridor to reach markets in the United States, Europe and Asia.

The warning followed the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency’s (NDLEA) dismantling of four methamphetamine laboratories in Nigeria this year, which US officials said highlighted the importance of intelligence sharing and international cooperation in tackling the growing threat posed by synthetic drugs.

Michael Gonzales, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs for Africa and the Middle East, gave the warning on Tuesday during a visit to the NDLEA headquarters in Abuja.

Gonzales commended the agency for its operational successes, particularly the discovery and dismantling of the methamphetamine laboratories, describing the operations as evidence of effective intelligence gathering, inter-agency cooperation, coordinated action, investigations and prosecution.

He said he chose Nigeria as his first destination after assuming office four months ago because of the country’s strategic importance on the continent and the NDLEA’s record in combating illicit drug trafficking.

“I became the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement just four months ago, covering all countries of Africa and the Middle East. And when I was thinking where it makes the most sense to visit first, Nigeria was a clear answer,” he said.

Gonzales described Nigeria as a continental leader and economic powerhouse, while commending the NDLEA’s leadership and its achievements in collaboration with other government agencies.

He said the visit was also intended to provide an opportunity to assess the agency’s operations firsthand, citing the longstanding partnership between the US Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) and the NDLEA.

“Because as a leader, as an economic powerhouse on the continent, but also particularly NDLEA for the leadership and the impressive wins that you and your team and your interagency counterparts have delivered time and again.

“In addition to the very robust partnership between INL and NDLEA, I wanted to see firsthand where the magic happens, as we say in the United States,” he said.

The US official identified the four methamphetamine laboratory busts recorded by the NDLEA this year as a demonstration of the agency’s ability to deploy intelligence-led investigations, coordinate operations across agencies and national boundaries, and pursue cases through to prosecution.

“The four meth lab busts just this year alone are a testament to the deployment of some of the best practices in our tradecraft, the intelligence-based knowledge collection, the coordination across national lines and agency lines, the operational excellence that goes into the actual bust, and then the interrogations, the investigations and prosecutions.

“They’re all so critical because ultimately counter-narcotics work, the work that each of us does day in and day out, truly delivers for the people,” he said.

Gonzales said the importance of counter-narcotics operations extended beyond the countries where illicit drugs were produced or intercepted, noting that the international nature of the trade meant that trafficking networks could affect communities across different regions.

He said narcotics trafficking remained a foreign policy concern for the United States because of its impact on families and communities, adding that efforts by the INL and the NDLEA served the interests of both countries.

“When I am talking to American audiences in the United States, I tell them there’s virtually no other issue of foreign policy that so tangibly affects the lives of every community, virtually every family across our country, than narcotics.

“And the reality of the narcotics trade is international. It knows no boundaries, very few constraints. And so, the work that INL does in the United States and globally and the work that NDLEA does fundamentally delivers for the Nigerian people, for the American people,” Gonzales said.

He said the United States had more than four decades of experience supporting counter-narcotics operations globally, including through the provision of training and equipment.

According to him, changes in trafficking patterns have made international cooperation increasingly important, particularly as criminal organisations adapt their operations in response to enforcement pressure.

Gonzales likened the effect of intensified US pressure on cartels in the Western Hemisphere to “squeezing a balloon”, explaining that traffickers were seeking alternative routes through Africa to reach markets in Europe and beyond.

He also highlighted the growing shift from plant-based narcotics to synthetic drugs, which he described as more difficult to detect and potentially deadlier.

He said counter-narcotics efforts must therefore address criminal organisations as interconnected networks, including their financial flows, rather than focus solely on individual drug seizures.

In his response, Mohamed Marwa, Chairman of the NDLEA, said the agency’s recent operations had exposed what he described as a deliberate attempt by Mexican drug cartels to establish Nigeria as a manufacturing base for methamphetamine.

Marwa said the discovery of the laboratories demonstrated the growing convergence of drug trafficking, illicit arms dealing and terrorist financing, warning that the activities of criminal networks could not be treated as separate security challenges.

“Crime has no borders, and neither does the threat. The drugs we seize, the arms we intercept and the terrorist financing we trace are not separate problems.

“When we seize narcotics and illicit weapons in the same operations and along the same routes, we are looking at the convergence of crime. Drug money buys guns, guns sustain armed groups, and armed groups sustain terrorism,” he said.

He added that the cross-border nature of terrorism and organised crime required coordinated responses, particularly in West Africa and the Sahel region.

“Terrorism has no borders. What festers in the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin does not stay there, and what is trafficked through West Africa does not stop at our coastline,” the NDLEA chairman said.

Marwa detailed the agency’s operations against the laboratories, beginning with what he described as the largest clandestine methamphetamine laboratory ever discovered in Nigeria.

“The Mexican cartel threat is real, and we are confronting it,” he said.

According to him, NDLEA operatives recently dismantled the laboratory in a forest in Ijebu East, Ogun State, where three Mexican methamphetamine experts and their Nigerian collaborators were arrested.

He said illicit substances worth more than $360 million were recovered during the operation.

Marwa said the agency subsequently raided another industrial-scale laboratory in Tapa Village, neighbouring Oyo State, barely four weeks after the Ogun operation.

During the raid, a Mexican methamphetamine expert allegedly brought in to oversee large-scale production was arrested alongside four Nigerian collaborators, he said.

The NDLEA Chairman added that the agency had also dismantled similar facilities in Enugu and Ebonyi states in south-east Nigeria, which he said were linked to Mexican drug cartels.

He said the discoveries were not isolated incidents but indicated an attempt by the cartels to establish Nigeria as a production centre for synthetic drugs.

Marwa said the operations had implications for the United States and other international markets, arguing that the cartels were seeking to use West Africa as a corridor for transporting methamphetamine in industrial quantities to Europe, Asia and American cities.

“Let me be plain about why this matters to Washington. These cartels are not setting up in our forests to supply Nigerian consumers alone.

“They want a West African corridor to ship industrial quantities of methamphetamine to Europe, to Asia, and to American cities.

“Especially taking into consideration the President Trump hammer that is smashing cartel traffic en route to America. These cartels are now seeking alternative routes to get to the same America,” he said.

He said the dismantling of each laboratory disrupted a potential supply chain to international drug markets, including the United States.

“Every meth-producing laboratory that we shut down is a supply line that never reaches an American street, and every cartel operative we arrest is one fewer in the pipeline.

“Our forensic chemists, our investigators and our tactical teams are, in effect, forward defence for communities in the United States,” Marwa said.

The NDLEA chairman also acknowledged the contribution of the US partnership to the agency’s operational capacity, saying the support had strengthened its capabilities in forensic and chemical analysis, professional training, investigations, financial-crime detection and equipment maintenance.

He said the collaboration had contributed to the agency’s operational results over the past five years, during which it arrested 96,157 drug offenders, including 250 drug barons, and seized more than 15.8 million kilogrammes of assorted illicit drugs.

Marwa added that 16,691 drug traffickers, including major operators in the illicit drug trade, had been convicted within the same period.

He, however, warned that a withdrawal of US assistance could create gaps that criminal and terrorist networks might exploit, urging Washington to sustain or increase its support for the agency.

“This great partnership has fueled our offensives that yielded the arrest of 96,157 drug offenders including 250 drug barons, the seizure of over 15.8 million kilograms of assorted illicit drugs and conviction of 16,691 drug traffickers including the kingpins, in the last five years,” he said.

Marwa appealed to Gonzales to convey to the US government the need to maintain its assistance to the NDLEA, saying the agency required continued support to sustain its operations against increasingly sophisticated transnational criminal networks.

He urged the United States to retain its existing level of assistance, if not increase it, arguing that drug traffickers, arms dealers and terrorists continued to cooperate across national boundaries.

“Traffickers, arms dealers and terrorists cooperate across borders every day, and governments confronting them must do the same,” Marwa said.

By Ojochenemi Onje, Business Day

Related story: Nigeria arrests alleged Mexican drug kingpin at international airport