Armed attack in Congo kills at least 33 and forces Ebola patients to flee

Islamic State-linked militants raided a village in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, killing at least 33 civilians and forcing patients with confirmed and suspected Ebola infections to flee, authorities in the country said on Friday.

The attackers, from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a group recognised as an Islamic State affiliate, struck at around 11 p.m. on Thursday in Cantine-Aloyath, a village about 50 kilometres west of Beni, in North Kivu province, one of the areas hardest hit by the Ebola outbreak sweeping the country.

During the assault, the militants set fire to a health post and more than 50 homes, according to Beni territorial administrator Colonel Charles Omeonga. “So far, we have counted 33 bodies and more than 50 houses set on fire,” civil society leader Tchetche Aliamini told the AP news agency, adding that most of the victims had gunshot wounds while others had been burned or attacked with machetes.

About 180 patients fled the local hospital, the Kelekele Hospital Centre in Cantine, including one patient with confirmed Ebola and five suspected cases, three of them high-risk contacts, according to its medical director, Christian Kakule Vulembera. The flight of infected people complicates contact tracing in a province that accounts for almost half of the outbreak’s new cases.

The outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus and declared on 15 May, is the fastest-growing in the country’s history: authorities have recorded more than 10,000 cases and more than 5,000 deaths, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). The World Health Organization announced this week that two candidate vaccines designed specifically for the Bundibugyo strain will be added to the ongoing clinical trial in the country.

Photo: AP

Source: Reuters