Health workers in DR Congo move a patient to a hospital after he was cleared of Ebola on November 4, 2018. PHOTO | AFP
Armed assailants attacked an Ebola treatment centre in eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday, setting off a fire and
becoming embroiled in an extended gun battle with security forces,
health officials said.
The identity and motive of the
assailants were unclear. Aid workers have faced mistrust in some areas
as they work to contain an Ebola outbreak.
Dozens of
armed militia also regularly attack civilians and security forces in
eastern Congo’s borderlands with Uganda and Rwanda, which has
significantly hampered the response to the disease.
The
health ministry said in a statement that 38 suspected Ebola patients
and 12 confirmed cases were in the centre at the time of the attack.
Four of the patients with confirmed cases fled and are being looked for,
it said.
None of the patients who have been accounted for were injured, nor were any staff members, the ministry added.
French
medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which runs the centre
together with the ministry, condemned the “deplorable attack” and said
its efforts were focused on the immediate safety of patients and staff.
The attack in the city of Butembo was the second in Congo’s Ebola-hit east this week.
On Sunday unidentified assailants set fire to a treatment centre in the nearby town of Katwa, killing a nurse.
The
current Ebola outbreak, first declared last August, is the second
deadliest of the haemorrhagic fever since it was discovered in Congo in
1976.
It is believed to have killed at least 553 people so far and infected over 300 more.
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