Protesters set an Ebola clinic on fire in eastern DR Congo

Protesters in the town of Rwampara in eastern DR Congo’s Ituri province set a hospital on fire after being denied access to recover the bodies of relatives who died of Ebola, local reports said.

Security forces intervened to retake control of the building, according to video footage shared by a healthcare worker.

The incident occurred as tensions rose over the handling of victims of the latest Ebola outbreak. Health authorities had refused to release the bodies for traditional burials due to infection risks.

The World Health Organisation has declared the outbreak an international emergency. According to the WHO, 139 people have died, and nearly 600 probable cases have been identified.

Efforts to contain the outbreak have been hampered by long-running conflicts in eastern Congo, including between the Congolese army and the M23 militia.

A first Ebola case has been confirmed in South Kivu province, an area under M23 control, the group’s spokesperson said on Thursday. The case involved a person arriving from Kisangani, a city where no Ebola infections from the current outbreak have been recorded.

The M23 has seized large areas of eastern Congo. The United Nations and the United States accuse Rwanda of supporting the group, a charge that the government in Kigali consistently denies. The group has never managed a response to a serious epidemic like Ebola, which has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years.

The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain, which has no approved vaccine or treatment.

SOURCE: AP