Residents of a town at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo set a treatment center on fire on Friday night in the second such attack in the region in a week.
Eighteen people believed to be sick with the virus left the facility as unidentified assailants targeted the clinic in Mongbwalu. They torched a tent established by Doctors Without Borders for suspected and confirmed Ebola cases, Dr. Richard Lokudi, director of Mongbwalu General Reference Hospital, confirmed.
“We strongly condemn this act, as it caused panic among the staff of the Mongbwalu Referral Hospital and also resulted in the escape of 18 suspected cases into the community,” he stated.
Another treatment centre in Rwampara was burned on Thursday after family members were prevented from retrieving a local man’s body.
Ebola victims’ bodies are highly contagious, and their preparation for burial and subsequent funeral gatherings can significantly spread the virus, often prompting protests from families when authorities intervene.
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Tensions between health workers and local communities are high; a high-security burial for Ebola patients occurred in Bunia, another outbreak town, on Saturday.
In response, authorities in northeastern Congo on Friday banned funeral wakes and gatherings of more than 50 people to curb transmission.
The World Health Organisation has elevated the risk level for Congo to “very high” from “high,” though the global risk remains low. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed 82 cases and seven deaths in Congo on Friday, cautioning the outbreak is believed to be “much larger.”
The Bundibugyo virus, a rare Ebola strain with no available vaccine, spread undetected for weeks in Congo’s Ituri province.
This followed the first known death, as authorities initially tested for a more common Ebola virus, which came up negative. There are now 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths, though more are expected as surveillance expands.
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Dr. Jean Kaseya, director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, stressed the critical need to build trust with affected communities.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies announced on Saturday that three of its volunteers had died from the outbreak in Mongbwalu.
The agency believes these healthcare workers contracted the virus on 27 March while conducting dead body management for a humanitarian mission unrelated to Ebola. This significantly pushes back the outbreak’s estimated timeline from the previous first confirmed death in late April in Bunia, Ituri’s capital.
