NAIROBI, Kenya — An Ebola outbreak has been declared in northern Democratic Republic of Congo and has killed at least three people in the past three weeks, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

The affected zone is in a forested area of Lower Uele Province, and it is close to the border with the Central African Republic, the W.H.O. said.

The outbreak is not linked to previous Ebola flare-ups in Congo, nor the one that tore through West Africa in 2014, killing more than 11,000 people, said Tarik Jasarevic, a W.H.O. spokesman. That outbreak was significant because it reached major cities and began in a part of Africa that had never seen Ebola before.

Mr. Jasarevic said that there had been a number of Ebola outbreaks in the Lower Uele region since 2000. Congo has had eight outbreaks of Ebola since 1976, according to the W.H.O.