Ebola response in DR Congo hampered by attacks on 11 health centres
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Sowetan
Eleven health facilities have been burned or targeted and four armed attacks have hit the Ebola response in DR Congo, according to Africa CDC. The outbreak has caused 5,433 deaths from 11,114 cases, while more than 1,000 contacts have been lost to follow-up, according to Congolese authorities.
Attacks on health workers and medical facilities are increasingly complicating the response to the Ebola outbreak in eastern DR Congo, with four armed attacks, 16 assaults on responders and 11 health centres burned or targeted, Africa CDC official Wessam Mankoula said at a press briefing on Thursday. The attacks have become deadlier since late September, he said.
An attack the previous week in Cantine-Aloya, North Kivu, by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an armed group linked to Islamic State, killed 66 people, including three health workers, Wessam Mankoula said. More than 1,000 people who had been in contact with patients have been lost to follow-up and three confirmed Ebola cases remain unaccounted for.
The World Health Organization has warned that continued violence risks reversing the progress made over the past six months. Its Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Wednesday that insecurity was one of the main obstacles to the response, limiting humanitarian access, disrupting operations and making rapid access to populations more difficult.
The outbreak, declared on 15 May, has reached 11,114 cases and 5,433 deaths, according to Congolese government data. It follows in particular the attack that left 66 people dead and more than 1,000 contacts lost to follow-up, reported previously, and comes after Africa CDC called for a peace corridor in Beni on 8 November.
