Safety fears limit Ebola response in Congo, with more than 12 attacks recorded

BUNIA, Congo (AP) — At least a dozen attacks on health facilities and workers have been recorded during Congo’s Ebola outbreak as safety fears restrict the response at the epicenter in Ituri province, authorities said Saturday.

Many unpaid health workers and other frontline workers have also gone on strike, further complicating response efforts in what’s been declared the fastest growing Ebola outbreak on record with 2,181 cases, including 864 deaths so far recorded.

Many of the attacks have been carried out by angry mobs who have stormed treatment centers or targeted response teams in the field, Pierre Akilimali, incident manager for the Ebola response, said at a press briefing in Bunia, the capital of Ituri.

In Ituri province which accounts for around 90% of all cases, health and aid workers have been seen leaving remote communities considered hot spots and heading to Bunia in recent days, locals told The Associated Press.

This follows the latest attack by residents protesting the death of a woman at a nearby hospital in Ituri’s town of Nyakunde on Wednesday.

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