Key Takeaway:
- Young men stormed an Ebola hospital in eastern Congo in a Congo Ebola Hospital Attack, demanding relatives’ bodies and forcing patient evacuations amid gunfire.
- Attacks on Ebola treatment centers are increasing as families resist strict burial and gathering restrictions imposed by authorities.
- WHO warns the Ebola outbreak in Congo poses a “very high” national risk, with more than 900 suspected cases reported.
Angry young men stormed a hospital treating Ebola patients in eastern Congo on Sunday, demanding the release of relatives’ bodies and forcing medical staff to evacuate patients as gunfire erupted around the facility.
Attack disrupts Ebola treatment efforts
The attack targeted Mongbwalu General Hospital in Ituri province, where health workers are responding to Congo’s latest Ebola outbreak. Hospital director Dr. Richard Lokudu said the assailants demanded the bodies of two relatives believed to have died from the virus.
“There was gunfire and the medics were trying to evacuate the patients and the staff,” Lokudu told The Associated Press by phone.
It was not immediately clear whether anyone was injured. Lokudu said the hospital remained on “general alert” as the situation unfolded Sunday evening.
The assault marked the third attack in one week on medical facilities involved in Ebola treatment efforts in northeastern Congo, where authorities and aid groups face growing resistance from local communities.
Families protest burial restrictions
Health officials say bodies of Ebola victims remain highly contagious after death, making traditional funerals a major source of transmission. Congolese authorities have ordered trained teams to handle burials of suspected victims, a measure that has sparked anger among some families in the Congo Ebola Hospital Attack.
On Friday, the government banned funeral wakes and gatherings of more than 50 people in northeastern Congo to slow the spread of the virus.
Violence linked to the outbreak escalated Saturday when residents in Mongbwalu attacked and burned a treatment tent operated by Doctors Without Borders. Lokudu said 18 suspected Ebola patients fled the facility during the chaos and remained unaccounted for.
Another Ebola treatment center in Rwampara was burned Thursday after relatives were prevented from retrieving the body of a man suspected of dying from the disease.
Who warns of high risk in Congo?
The World Health Organization has classified the outbreak as a “very high” risk for the Congo Ebola Hospital Attack, though it said the global threat remains low.
Earlier Sunday, Congo’s Ministry of Communication reported 904 suspected Ebola cases, most of them in Ituri province. The ministry said there were 119 suspected deaths, although regional figures released separately totaled 220 deaths. Officials did not immediately explain the discrepancy.
The outbreak involves the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which no approved vaccine exists. Health authorities said the virus spread undetected for weeks after the first reported death in late April in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said Saturday that three of its volunteers had died from the outbreak in Mongbwalu. The organization said the workers likely contracted the virus on March 27 while handling bodies during a humanitarian mission unrelated to Ebola.
Medical workers continue to struggle with limited resources and growing insecurity as they attempt to contain the outbreak in one of Congo’s most volatile regions.
