Mob attacks on Ebola treatment centers in eastern Congo have forced patients to flee, raising fears that confirmed or suspected cases are spreading through communities as health workers struggle to contain the outbreak.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom,
Health officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are warning that repeated attacks on Ebola treatment centers in the country’s eastern outbreak zone are undermining containment efforts, with patients fleeing clinics during mob violence and some failing to return.
At least three attacks have been documented at Ebola facilities in Ituri province, the center of the Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak. Two of the incidents targeted the same hospital in Mongbwalu, where health workers say distrust, fear and demands for traditional burials have complicated the response.
Dr. Richard Lokodu, medical director of Mongbwalu General Referral Hospital, said some residents are rejecting official outbreak protocols and demanding that bodies be returned to families for funerals, despite the risk of transmission from Ebola victims.
“There is denial of the disease within the population, with some members wanting to claim the bodies of suspected and/or confirmed cases,” Lokodu warned.
Lokodu said the current unrest echoes violence seen during earlier Ebola outbreaks from 2013 to 2016 and 2018 to 2020, when mobs also targeted clinics and demanded access to the bodies of relatives. Ebola remains highly contagious after death, making burial practices a critical part of outbreak control.
The response has been further complicated by widespread denial of the disease in parts of eastern Congo. Some residents believe Ebola is a foreign-backed hoax designed to exploit local communities, a suspicion fueled in part by the sudden arrival of international health organizations and large-scale aid operations in conflict-affected regions.
The security situation has also worsened. During the 2018 outbreak, armed groups and jihadist organizations linked to the Islamic State and al-Qaeda exploited instability in eastern Congo. Those groups are now more entrenched in the region and have taken control of Goma, a major city affected by the current outbreak.
Lokodu said 18 Ebola patients fled Saturday after an angry crowd burned a treatment center built by Doctors Without Borders, also known as MSF. Only four laboratory tests from those patients had returned results, he said, and one was positive.
“So we have one confirmed case of Ebola that continues to circulate in the community and evade the response,” Lokodu said.
The violence continued Sunday, when Mongbwalu General Hospital was attacked again by four successive groups of angry youths. During clashes with police, seven more Ebola patients escaped. One of them, who was critically ill with hemorrhaging associated with Ebola infection, died while trying to leave the facility.
In Rwampara, where another Ebola clinic had been attacked two days earlier, authorities held a communal burial Saturday for Ebola victims under heavy security.
“Armed soldiers and police monitored the burials as Red Cross workers clad in white protective suits lowered sealed coffins into the ground. Crying family members stood at a distance,” the Associated Press reported.
Health officials say the attacks are placing additional strain on medical teams already facing a dangerous outbreak. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said Saturday that three Red Cross volunteers died from Ebola while responding in Mongbwalu. Officials believe the volunteers contracted the virus while handling bodies more than a week before the outbreak was detected and formally declared.
The timeline of the Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak has shifted as investigators identify earlier infections. Officials believe the virus may have spread for several weeks before the outbreak was declared, partly because the rare Bundibugyo strain is genetically distinct and can evade test kits designed for more common Ebola strains.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday that response teams are struggling to keep pace with the outbreak.
“We are now playing catch-up with a very fast-moving epidemic. At the moment, the epidemic is outpacing us,” Tedros warned.
The attacks have created a dual crisis for responders: containing a deadly virus while trying to restore trust in communities where fear, misinformation and insecurity are driving patients away from treatment.
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