Angry young men stormed Mongbwalu General Hospital in eastern Congo on Sunday evening, marking the third attack in a week on health facilities treating suspected Ebola patients. The assault forced medical staff to rush patients out as gunfire erupted nearby, deepening fear around an outbreak already stretching local response efforts.
Hospital director Dr. Richard Lokudu said the attackers demanded the release of two bodies of their relatives. He said the facility was placed on “general alert” as medics tried to move patients and staff to safety.
A widening security crisis around Ebola care
The attacks have exposed how fragile Ebola treatment sites remain in parts of Ituri province, where health workers are operating under intense pressure and limited resources. The World Health Organization has classified the outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern, while also saying the risk of spread globally remains low.
The violence has repeatedly targeted places where suspected cases are being treated or isolated. On Saturday, residents in Mongbwalu attacked and set fire to a tent set up by Doctors Without Borders for suspected and confirmed Ebola cases.
That same incident left 18 people with suspected infections unaccounted for after leaving the facility, according to Lokudu. On Thursday, another treatment center in Rwampara was burned after family members were barred from taking the body of a man suspected to have died from Ebola.
Burials have become a flashpoint
Authorities have tried to limit a major source of infection by taking control of burials whenever possible. Bodies of Ebola victims can remain highly contagious, especially when families prepare them for funerals or gather in large numbers to mourn.
The government said on Friday that funeral wakes and gatherings of more than 50 people would be banned in northeastern Congo to slow the spread of the virus. Those measures have also triggered anger among some families and local residents who resist being separated from the dead.
Cases and deaths continue to rise
The Congolese Ministry of Communication said on X earlier on Sunday that 904 suspected Ebola cases had been recorded, mostly in northeastern Ituri Province. That figure was a sharp increase from the more than 700 suspected cases previously reported.
The ministry also said suspected Ebola deaths stood at 119, although the separate regional figures it released added up to 220. Officials were not immediately available to explain the gap.
WHO has said the outbreak poses a “very high” risk for Congo, up from an earlier assessment of “high.” It added that the threat to the wider world remains low, even as local conditions continue to worsen.
A rare strain detected after weeks of spread
The outbreak involves the Bundibugyo virus, a rare Ebola strain for which no available vaccine exists. Health authorities said it spread unnoticed for weeks in Ituri after the first reported death in late April in Bunia, the provincial capital.
That first death came while officials were testing for another, more common Ebola virus and received negative results. The delay made it harder to trace the outbreak early and added to the strain on already limited health services in the region.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Saturday that three of its volunteers had died from the outbreak in Mongbwalu. The organization said it believed the volunteers contracted the virus on March 27 while handling dead bodies during a humanitarian mission unrelated to Ebola.
If confirmed, that finding would push the outbreak timeline back significantly and suggest the virus had been circulating even earlier than authorities first thought.
Read more at: apnews.com