The World Health Organization has confirmed multiple outbreak clusters of an unidentified illness. Hundreds have become sick and dozens have died. The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed that a worrying mystery illness is spreading in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The outbreak has been traced, tentatively, to three children who ate a bat, the W.H.O. said, and known threats like Ebola and Marburg have been ruled out.

More than 50 people have died in two clusters of unknown illnesses in northwest Congo, global health authorities said.