KINSHASA, Congo — Angry young men stormed a hospital treating Ebola patients at the heart of the latest outbreak of the disease in eastern Congo on Sunday evening, forcing the medical staff to scramble to evacuate the patients as gunfire was heard in the area.
It was not immediately known if anyone was hurt in the attack on Mongbwalu General Hospital, but its medical director, Dr. Richard Lokudu, told the Associated Press the attackers demanded that two bodies of their kin be handed over to them.
There was gunfire and the medics were trying to evacuate the patients and the staff, Lokudu said by phone.
“Mongbwalu General Hospital is on general alert,” he said. He did not have further details of the unfolding turmoil.
The attack is the third in a week on healthcare facilities where medical workers are struggling with lack of resources to treat suspected Ebola cases. It underlined the challenges of the outbreak, which the World Health Organization has declared a public health emergency of international concern.
Bodies of those who died of Ebola can be highly contagious and lead to further spread when people prepare them for burial and gather for funerals.
In response to the outbreak, Congolese officials have mandated that the dangerous work of burying suspected victims be managed whenever possible by health authorities, which can be met by protests from families and friends. On Friday, the government said funeral wakes and gatherings of more than 50 people would be banned in northeastern Congo in an effort to curb the spread of the virus.
On Saturday, a group of residents of Mongbwalu attacked and set fire to a Doctors Without Borders tent set up to treat suspected and confirmed Ebola cases. During that attack, 18 people with suspected Ebola infections left the facility and were unaccounted for, Lokudu said earlier.
On Thursday, another treatment center, in the town of Rwampara, was burned down after family members were banned from retrieving the body of a man suspected to have died of Ebola.
The WHO has said the outbreak poses a “very high” risk for the Democratic Republic of Congo — up from a previous categorization of “high” — but that the risk of the disease spreading globally remains low. A few cases and deaths have been reported in neighboring Uganda, however.
Earlier Sunday, the Congolese Ministry of Communication said on X that there were 904 suspected cases of Ebola, mostly in northeastern Ituri province — a significant jump from the previously announced tally of more than 700 suspected cases.
The ministry also said the total number of deaths attributed to Ebola stood at 119, but figures it released separately for each region added up to 220. Officials could not immediately be reached to explain the discrepancy.
There is no available vaccine for the Bundibugyo virus, a rare type of Ebola that spread undetected for weeks in Ituri following the first reported death, in late April in Bunia, the provincial capital — while authorities tested for another, more common, Ebola virus and came up negative.
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 agency said it believed the three healthcare workers contracted the virus March 27 while handling bodies as part of a humanitarian mission unrelated to Ebola.
If confirmed, this would significantly push back the timeline of the outbreak.
Kamale and Pronczuk write for the Associated Press and reported from Kinshasa and Dakar, Senegal, respectively.
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