Federal health officials are monitoring the outbreak of a deadly and mysterious disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed to UPI.

A cluster of deaths linked to a mysterious illness in the Democratic Republic of the Congo could be the result of a poisoning or bacterial meningitis, the WHO has suggested.

MONUSCO, the U.N. peacekeeping force in the DRC, said the reported killings were under investigation but remained unverified.