BUNIA, Congo - People set fire to an Ebola treatment center in a town at the heart of the outbreak in eastern Congo on Thursday after being prevented from retrieving the body of a local man, according to a witness and a senior police officer. This incident reflects growing fear and anger over a health crisis that doctors are struggling to contain.
Attack in Rwampara
The arson attack in Rwampara underscores the challenges health workers face as they attempt to curb the rare Ebola virus using stringent measures that may conflict with local customs, such as burial rites. The disease has been spreading for weeks in a region lacking health facilities and where armed conflict has displaced many people.
Authorities are managing the dangerous work of burying suspected victims wherever possible because the bodies of those who die from Ebola can be highly contagious, leading to further spread when people prepare bodies for burial and gather for funerals. This policy can be extremely unpopular with victims' families and friends, who are not given the chance to bury their loved ones.
Fear and Anger Grow
The center in Rwampara was burned by local youths who became angry while trying to retrieve the body of a friend who had apparently died of Ebola, according to a witness who spoke to The Associated Press by telephone. "The police intervened to try to calm the situation, but unfortunately they were unsuccessful," said Alexis Burata, a local student who said he was in the area. "The young people ended up setting fire to the center. That's the situation."
An AP journalist saw people break into the center and set fire to objects inside, as well as to what appeared to be the body of at least one suspected Ebola victim that was being stored there. Aid workers fled the treatment center in vehicles.
Deputy Senior Commissioner Jean Claude Mukendi, head of the public security department in Ituri Province, said the incident was due to youths who did not understand the protocols required for burying suspected Ebola victims. "His family, friends, and other young people wanted to take his body home for a funeral even though the instructions from the authorities during this Ebola virus outbreak are clear," Mukendi said. "All bodies must be buried according to the regulations."
Hama Amadou, the field Coordinator for the humanitarian organization ALIMA, which had teams working at the center, said later that calm had been restored and the aid teams were continuing their work at the center.
Complications in Stemming the Outbreak
The flash of anger underlined the complications faced by both Congolese authorities and an array of aid agencies trying to stem an outbreak the World Health Organization has declared a public health emergency of international concern. The outbreak is bigger than official figures show, WHO says. There are 148 suspected deaths and nearly 600 suspected cases, according to the U.N., with two cases including one death in neighboring Uganda. But the head of the WHO has said the outbreak is almost certainly much larger and has also expressed concern over the speed of the spread. The risk of the outbreak spreading globally is low, the WHO has said, but high regionally with the Ituri Province at the center of the outbreak bordering Uganda and South Sudan.
