Dekese is a community in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the right bank of the Lukenie River.

The Kinshasa government asked the World Health Organization to help open a humanitarian corridor so they could also use the general hospital and medical personnel of Dekese.

However, the illness had a much lower death rate than Ebola, with most of the victims being children under five and adults over 55, and appeared to be a respiratory disease.

[3] In May 2011, after the governor of Kasai Occidental had been removed from office and a few days before the election of his successor, 40 soldiers arrived in Dekese, first in the town and then spreading out into the territory.

They committed abuses including arbitrary arrests, looting and rape of women and minors.