Safety fears limit Ebola response in Congo, with at least 12 attacks recorded
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- At least a dozen attacks on Ebola treatment centers and health workers in Congo’s Ituri province are undermining containment efforts, raising fresh alarm over safety at the outbreak’s epicenter.
- Unpaid local health staff members and other front-line workers have gone on strike, further slowing the response to the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record, with 2,181 cases and 864 deaths.
- After residents in Nyakunde stormed a hospital to protest a woman’s death, aid teams have been seen fleeing remote hot spots for Bunia, leaving vulnerable communities with fewer protections.
BUNIA, Congo — At least a dozen attacks on health facilities and workers have been recorded during Congo’s Ebola outbreak, as safety fears restrict the response at the epicenter in Ituri province, authorities said Saturday.
Many unpaid health workers and other front-line workers have gone on strike, further complicating response efforts in what’s been declared the fastest growing Ebola outbreak on record with 2,181 cases, including 864 deaths, so far recorded.
Many of the attacks have been carried out by angry mobs who have stormed treatment centers or targeted response teams in the field, said Pierre Akilimali, incident manager for the Ebola response, at a news briefing in Bunia, the capital of Ituri.
In Ituri province, which accounts for about 90% of all cases, health and aid workers have been seen leaving remote communities considered hot spots and heading to Bunia in recent days, locals told the Associated Press.
This follows the latest attack by residents protesting the death of a woman at a nearby hospital in Ituri’s town of Nyakunde on Wednesday.
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