DR Congo Ebola response effort suspended in Beni after clashes
BENI, DR Congo: Efforts to fight an Ebola outbreak in DR Congo’s restive eastern Beni region were suspended Saturday after clashes just a ‘ few metres’ from a local emergency centre and the hotels of several response teams, the health ministry said.
UN peacekeepers from the MONUSCO mission repelled an offensive by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militia in Beni city’s northern Boikene neighbourhood late Friday, a ministry statement said.
The ADF, a shadowy armed group that has killed hundreds of people since 2014 and at least seven peacekeepers in clashes just this week, wanted to ‘attack one of MONUSCO’s bases’, the statement added.
“We escaped death thanks to MONUSCO, which is very close to us in Boikene,” a resident told the UN’s Okapi radio.
The health ministry said that ‘all field activities were suspended and the emergency operations centre remains closed’ on Saturday, adding that Ebola health worker response teams had stayed in their hotels.
Also on Saturday, the World Health Organisation ( WHO) said 16 of its staff members in Beni had been temporarily evacuated after a shell hit the building they were staying in.
Michel Yao, WHO’s coordinator for Ebola response operations in Beni, told AFP that no one was injured, adding that it was not known whether the shell came from the ADF or MONUSCO forces. — AFP