The Ebola virus has returned to the Democratic Republic of the Congo more than two years since its last major outbreak, the World Health Organization announced on Friday.

Three people died from a fever, one of whom tested positive for the Ebola virus. Health authorities identified nine people who were suffering from a hemorrhagic fever in Bas-Uele province in the northeast of the country on or after April 22, the DRC Ministry of Public Health said in a statement.

"Our country must confront an outbreak of the Ebola virus that constitutes a public health crisis of international significance," the ministry said.

The WHO posted details of the case on Twitter, saying it had been notified by the DRC Ministry of Public Health.

The case "is in a very remote zone, very forested, so we are a little lucky. We always take this very seriously," WHO Congo spokesman Eugene Kabambi told Reuters news agency.

In 2014 the DRC was hit by its seventh Ebola virus outbreak, which killed 49 people but was unrelated to the concurrent outbreak in West Africa. The West African Ebola virus epidemic killed more than 10,000 people between 2013 and 2016.

Ebola is a highly contagious hemorrhagic fever that can be transmitted from animals, including bats and monkeys. The virus is fatal in up to 90 percent of cases.

An experimental vaccine was recently developed that the WHO said could be used in emergencies. The GAVI global vaccine alliance said on Friday that 300,000 emergency doses of the vaccine were available in case of a large-scale outbreak.

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aw/kms (AP, AFP, Reuters)