Emery MakumenoBBC Africa, Kinshasa
Reuters
An angry mob set fire to a section of a hospital at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after family and friends of a young man thought to have died from the virus were prevented from taking his body for burial.
“They started throwing projectiles at the hospital. They even set fire to tents that were being used as isolation rooms,” local politician Luc Malembe Malembe told the BBC of the scene he witnessed at Rwampara General Hospital.
In the chaos, police fired warning shots to disperse the crowd.
The body of a deceased Ebola victim is highly contagious and authorities must ensure safe burial to stop the spread of the virus.
Medical staff at Rwampara hospital, near the town of Bunia in Ituri province, where almost all the cases have been reported, were placed under military protection as police intervened to restore order.
A medical professional was injured by demonstrators who threw stones at them before the police intervened, a hospital employee told the AFP news agency.
The dead man was a popular figure in the local community and those who were upset by his death did not “grasp the reality of the disease,” Jean Claude Mukendi, who is coordinating the security response to Ebola in Ituri, told the Associated Press.
Witnesses told Reuters the young man was a footballer who played for several local teams. His mother told the news agency she believed her son died of typhoid fever and not Ebola.
Malembe said the crowd did not believe the virus, which has so far killed more than 130 people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, was real.
“People are not properly informed or made aware of what is happening. For a certain segment of the population, especially in remote areas, Ebola is an invention from the outside – it does not exist,” the politician said.
“They think it’s NGOs and hospitals that are creating this to make money, and that’s tragic.”
He said two tents were burned, along with a body that had to be buried.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends “safe and dignified burials” for Ebola victims, with trained teams using protective equipment to handle the bodies.
Six patients were receiving treatment in tents on the hospital grounds – and it was reported they may have fled in the chaos.
Reuters
The WHO called it a “public health emergency of international concern” but said it was not a pandemic.
On Wednesday, the WHO said 139 people were believed to have died from Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, out of 600 suspected cases.
However, on the same day, Congolese Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba told state broadcaster RTNC TV that authorities had recorded 159 deaths.
Two cases of the virus have been detected in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s neighbor, Uganda.
Authorities have temporarily suspended flights, buses and all other public transportation crossing the border due to the outbreak. Passenger ferries are also not allowed on the Semliki River, which is part of the DR Congo-Uganda border.
The outbreak was caused by a rare species of Ebola known as Bundibugyo. There is currently no vaccine for this species and the WHO has said it could take up to nine months for a vaccine to be ready.
On Thursday, M23 – a rebel group that controls parts of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo – said it had confirmed the first case of Ebola in South Kivu province, located hundreds of kilometers from the epicenter of Ituri.
The 28-year-old man, who came from Kisangani, died before the diagnosis was confirmed, according to a rebel statement.
Kisangani is a large city in the north-central Tshopo province, where no Ebola infections have been recorded so far.
Access to areas controlled by the M23 is causing increasing concern.
The group has never handled a crisis like Ebola, but said it would work with international partners to contain the virus.
Getty Images/BBC
