Johannesburg — For weeks it was dubbed simply “Disease X.” But the mysterious flu-like disease that has killed more than 143 people — mainly women and young children — in the Democratic Republic of Congo has finally been identified.

“The mystery has finally been solved,” Congo’s health ministry declared in a statement on Tuesday. “It’s a case of severe malaria in the form of a respiratory illness.”

The health agency said malnutrition in the hardest-hit region had weakened the local population’s immunity, leaving them more vulnerable to the disease. People who contracted the malaria infection have exhibited symptoms including headache, fever, cough and body ache. 

The Congo’s health minister had told journalists the country was on “maximum alert” over the spread of the previously unidentified disease, and health officials told CBS News in early December that the remoteness of the epicenter of the outbreak and lack of a diagnosis made it difficult to launch a concerted response.

At least 592 cases were reported after the alert was first raised by Congo’s health ministry on Oct. 29. The ministry said the disease had a fatality rate of 6.25%. More than half of the deaths recorded were children younger than five who were severely malnourished when they contracted the disease, according to the World Health Organization.

At a press briefing on Dec. 10, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 10 out of 12 samples from patients suffering from the mysterious disease had tested positive for malaria, but he said they were still testing at the time for other diseases.

The Congolese government had sent a rapid intervention team to the Kwango province, 435 miles southeast of capital city Kinshasa, consisting of epidemiologists and other medical experts. Their objective was to identify the disease and mount a suitable response. Government officials had earlier warned locals to avoid touching people infected with the illness or the bodies of those who had died.

Congo has suffered from many disease outbreaks in recent years, including typhoid, malaria and anemia. The country has also grappled with an mpox outbreak, with more than 47,000 suspected cases and over 1,000 suspected deaths from the disease, according to the WHO. 

Anti-malaria medicine provided by the WHO was being distributed at local health centers in Congo, and WHO officials said more medical supplies were due to arrive in the country Wednesday.

It’s the rainy season in Congo, which often sees a rise in malaria cases, and will certainly complicate treating those most at risk.

Moscow — Russia’s security service said Wednesday that it had detained a suspect in the killing of a senior general in a Moscow bomb blast. The suspect was described as an Uzbek citizen whom the agency said had been recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services.

Ukrainian security sources told CBS News on Monday that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) was behind the explosion that killed Lt. General Igor Kirillov. The claim couldn’t be independently verified, but Russian officials quickly vowed to take revenge against Ukraine’s leaders.

Russia’s Federal Security Service didn’t name the suspect, but it said he was born in 1995. According to an FSB statement, the suspect said he was recruited by Ukrainian special services.

“Kirillov was a war criminal and an absolutely legitimate target, since he gave orders to use prohibited chemical weapons against the Ukrainian military,” an informed source in the SBU asserted to CBS News. “Such an inglorious end awaits everyone who kills Ukrainians. Retribution for war crimes is inevitable.”

Kirillov was killed by a bomb hidden in an electric scooter outside his apartment building in Moscow, a day after Ukraine’s security service leveled criminal charges against him. His assistant also died in the attack.  

The FSB said the suspect had been promised a reward of $100,000 and permission to move to a European Union country in exchange for killing Kirillov. It said that, acting on instructions from Ukraine, the suspect traveled to Moscow, where he picked up a homemade explosive device. He then placed the device on an electric scooter and parked it at the entrance of the residential building where Kirillov lived.

The suspect then rented a car to monitor the location and set up a camera that livestreamed video from the scene to his handlers in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro. When Kirillov was seen leaving the building, the suspect detonated the bomb.

According to the FSB’s statement, the suspect faces “a sentence of up to life imprisonment.”

Kirillov, 54, was the chief of the Russian military’s radiological, biological and chemical protection forces. Either Kirillov himself or his military unit were sanctioned by several countries, including the U.S., Britain and Canada, for the alleged use of chemical weapons on the battlefield in Ukraine. On Monday, Ukraine’s SBU had opened a criminal investigation against him, accusing him of directing the use of banned chemical weapons.

Ukraine’s SBU has said it recorded more than 4,800 occasions when Russia used chemical weapons on the battlefield since President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion in February 2022. In May, the U.S. State Department announced sanctions against Kirillov’s unit, saying the U.S. had recorded the use of chloropicrin, a poison gas first deployed in World War I, against Ukrainian troops.

Russia has denied using any chemical weapons in Ukraine and, in turn, has accused Kyiv of using toxic agents in combat, and Kirillov was allegedly behind the spread of that propaganda.

Kirillov, who had been in his post since April 2017, was accused by the U.S. government of helping to spread disinformation about biological weapons and research.

In March 2023, about a year into Russia’s full-scale invasion, the U.S. State Department said Kirillov had “significantly increased his media engagement” to issue repeated, baseless claims that the U.S. government had been involved in creating both the mpox virus and COVID-19, and that the U.S. “is developing biological weapons able to selectively target ethnic groups.”

“The U.S. Government is concerned that this false narrative may be a prelude for a false-flag operation, where Russia itself uses biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons in Ukraine, and then attempts to blame it on Ukraine and/or the United States,” the State Department said at the time.

The bomb used in Tuesday’s attack was triggered remotely, according to Russian news reports. Images from the scene showed shattered windows and scorched brickwork.

Russia’s top state investigative agency said it’s looking into Kirillov’s death as a case of terrorism, and officials in Moscow vowed to punish Ukraine.

Moscow — Russia’s security service said Wednesday that it has detained a suspect in the killing of a senior general in Moscow.

The suspect was described as an Uzbek citizen recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services.

Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, didn’t name the suspect, but said he was born in 1995. According to an FSB statement, the suspect said he was recruited by Ukrainian special services.

Ukrainian security sources had told CBS News Monday that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) killed Kirillov in a special operation. The claim couldn’t be independently verified, but Russian officials quickly vowed to take revenge against Ukraine’s leaders.  

Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov was killed Tuesday by a bomb hidden in a scooter outside his apartment building in Moscow, a day after Ukraine’s security service leveled criminal charges against him. His assistant also died in the attack. A Ukrainian official said the service carried out the attack.

The FSB said the suspect had been promised a reward of $100,000 and permission to move to a European Union country in exchange for killing Kirillov.

The agency stated that, acting on instructions from Ukraine, the suspect traveled to Moscow, where he picked up a homemade explosive device. He then placed the device on an electric scooter and parked it at the entrance to the residential building where Kirillov lived.

The suspect then rented a car to monitor the location and set up a camera that livestreamed footage from the scene to his handlers in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro. Once Kirillov was seen leaving the building, the suspect detonated the bomb.

According to the FSB’s statement, the suspect faces “a sentence of up to life imprisonment.”

Kirillov, 54, was the chief of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces and was under sanctions from several countries, including the U.K. and Canada, for his actions in Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine. On Monday, Ukraine’s Security Service, or SBU, opened a criminal investigation against him, accusing him of directing the use of banned chemical weapons.

Russia has denied using any chemical weapons in Ukraine and, in turn, has accused Kyiv of using toxic agents in combat.

Kirillov, who took his current job in 2017, was one of the most high-profile figures to level those accusations. He held numerous briefings to accuse the Ukrainian military of using toxic agents and planning to launch attacks with radioactive substances – claims that Ukraine and its Western allies rejected as propaganda.

The bomb used in Tuesday’s attack was triggered remotely, according to Russian news reports. Images from the scene showed shattered windows and scorched brickwork.

Russia’s top state investigative agency said it’s looking into Kirillov’s death as a case of terrorism, and officials in Moscow vowed to punish Ukraine.