Another Country Bans Visitors from 8 African Nations, Includes Kenyans

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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.

El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele speaks during a public announcement on October 13, 2026. Photo: MARVIN RECINOS / AFP via Getty Images. Source: Getty Images

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.

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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."

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.

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Contact tracing has reached 134 of 135 identified contacts, or 99.3%, surpassing the international benchmark of 85%.

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.

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Asher Omondi (Copyeditor) Asher Omondi is currently the Head of Business Desk at TUKO.co.ke. He has over seven years of experience in digital media. Previously, he had worked in various organisations both as a social media manager and a monitor (FEMNET, Ghafla Kenya). He was a Broadcast Journalism student at the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication class of 2013. You can reach Asher at asher.omondi@tuko.co.ke.