{"id":139675,"date":"2026-07-18T10:58:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T16:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/safety-fears-limit-ebola-response-in-congo-with-more-than-12-attacks-recorded\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T11:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T17:05:09","slug":"safety-fears-limit-ebola-response-in-congo-with-more-than-12-attacks-recorded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/safety-fears-limit-ebola-response-in-congo-with-more-than-12-attacks-recorded\/","title":{"rendered":"Safety fears limit Ebola response in Congo, with more than 12 attacks recorded"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Health
Health workers tend to an Ebola patient at the Rwampara Treatment Center in Ituri, Congo, Thursday, June 18, 2026. (AP Photo\/Moses Sawasawa)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Moses Sawasawa)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BUNIA, Congo (AP) \u2014 At least a dozen attacks on health facilities and workers have been recorded during Congo’s Ebola outbreak<\/a> as safety fears restrict the response in the worst-affected region, authorities said Saturday.<\/p>\n

Many health workers<\/a> and other frontline workers in Ituri province have also gone on strike over unpaid salaries, further complicating response efforts in what\u2019s been declared the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record<\/a>. So far 2,181 cases have been recorded, including 864 deaths.<\/p>\n

The Bundibugyo virus responsible for this outbreak<\/a> is less common than others that cause Ebola disease, and there is no approved vaccine or treatment.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The attacks are not limited to healthcare teams and affect frontline workers like burial teams, according to Dr. Adelard Lufongola, operations manager for the Ebola response.<\/p>\n

\u201cMembers of the various response teams have been held captive in some health zones. Teams responsible for safe and dignified burials have been threatened and continue to be threatened in some cemeteries and within several communities,\u201d Lufongola said at the briefing.<\/p>\n

Ebola spreads in the human population through contact with bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen, and with contaminated surfaces and materials. Traditional funerals in which loved ones wash and prepare bodies have been restricted, which has angered some residents.<\/p>\n

In Ituri, 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.<\/p>\n

U.N. spokesman St\u00e9phane Dujarric on Thursday told reporters that humanitarian actors are \u201cdeeply concerned by escalating violence\u201d impacting the Ebola response and that access to treatment centers and surrounding communities remains constrained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe worsening security situation has forced several humanitarian partners involved in the Ebola response to temporarily relocate staff to Bunia which is relatively safer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The most recent attack recorded was on Wednesday, when residents in the town of Nyakunde attacked a hospital and touched an Ebola treatment center nearby.<\/p>\n

Officials said treatment and care resumed on Thursday at the center after its occupants, including some patients, fled in the aftermath of the attack. Concerns, however, remained about risks of transmission amid the chaos.<\/p>\n

\u201cI fear that the aid workers involved in combating this Ebola outbreak are going to leave the area. This risks making the task of eradicating the outbreak more difficult,\u201d said Christophe Munyanderu, a civil society leader in Ituri\u2019s Irumu territory.<\/p>\n

\"Rubble
Rubble set on fire as health workers involved in Congo's Ebola response go on strike as they protest over payment issues in Bunia, Congo, Wednesday, July 15, 2026. (AP Photo\/Constant Same Bagalwa)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Constant Same Bagalwa)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Health workers tend to an Ebola patient at the Rwampara Treatment Center in Ituri, Congo, Thursday, June 18, 2026. (AP Photo\/Moses Sawasawa)(AP Photo\/Moses Sawasawa) BUNIA, Congo (AP) \u2014 At least a dozen attacks on health facilities and workers have been recorded during Congo’s Ebola outbreak as safety fears restrict the response in the worst-affected region, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":139676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5734],"tags":[],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-139675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-associated-press"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139675"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139680,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139675\/revisions\/139680"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139675"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=139675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}