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 rang out in the area.
It was not immediately known if anyone was hurt in the attack on the Mongbwalu General Hospital but Dr. Richard Lokudu, the hospital’s medical director, 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 over the phone.
“Mongbwalu General Hospital is on general alert,” he added. He did not have any further details of the unfolding turmoil.
The attack — the third in a week’s time on health care facilities where medical workers struggle with lack of resources to treat suspected Ebola cases — 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 authorities have mandated that the dangerous work of burying suspected victims be managed wherever possible by 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, located in Ituri province, attacked and set fire to a tent set up for suspected and confirmed Ebola cases by the Doctors Without Borders humanitarian group.
During that attack, 18 people with suspected Ebola infections left the facility and were now unaccounted for, Lokudu had 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 local man suspected to have died of Ebola.
WHO has said the outbreak poses a “very high” risk for Congo — up from a previous categorization of “high” — but that the risk of the disease spreading globally remains low.
Earlier on 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 more than 700 suspected Ebola cases.
