Angry young men stormed a hospital treating Ebola patients in eastern Congo on Sunday evening. The Mongbwalu General Hospital was forced to evacuate both patients and staff amid gunfire in the area. Dr. Richard Lokudu, the hospital’s medical director, told AP that attackers demanded two bodies of their kin be handed over.
The attack, the third healthcare facility assault this week, highlighted the challenges of Congo’s Ebola outbreak, declared a public health emergency by the World Health Organization. Bodies of those who died from Ebola can be highly contagious and lead to further spread when people prepare them for burial and gather for funerals.
Congolese authorities have mandated that dangerous work of burying suspected victims be managed wherever possible by authorities, which has led to protests from families and friends. On Friday, the government banned funeral wakes and gatherings over 50 people in northeastern Congo to curb the virus spread.
On Saturday, a group of residents attacked and set fire to a tent for suspected and confirmed Ebola cases set up by Doctors Without Borders humanitarian group. During this attack, 18 people with suspected Ebola infections left the facility and were unaccounted for, Lokudu said earlier.
The outbreak poses a “very high” risk for Congo, up from a previous categorization of “high,” but the risk of global spread remains low. On Sunday, the Congolese Ministry of Communication reported 904 suspected cases of Ebola, mostly in northeastern Ituri Province, and 119 suspected deaths. However, the numbers released separately for each region added up to 220, causing an immediate discrepancy.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said three of its volunteers died from the outbreak in Mongbwalu on Saturday. The agency believes these healthcare workers contracted the virus while handling dead bodies as part of a humanitarian mission unrelated to Ebola on March 27.