WHO partly suspends Ebola fight after 4 workers killed in attacks
GOMA, CONGO » The World Health Organization suspended operations in one of Congo’s Ebola hot spots on Thursday after four health response workers were killed and six were injured in two attacks, the U.N. agency said.
“Ebola was retreating. These attacks will give it force again, and more people will die as a consequence,” WHO DirectorGeneral Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “We call on everyone who has a role to play to end this cycle of violence.”
There had only been seven Ebola cases in the last week, down from a peak of more than 120 per week in April, the WHO said in a statement on Wednesday.
The two attacks during Tuesday night targeted a residential camp in Biakato Mines and an Ebola response coordination office in Mangina, a farming village where the Ebola outbreak started more than a year ago. It was not immediately clear who the attackers were. There are numerous rebel groups operating in eastern Congo, which have complicated efforts to curb the spread of the disease, as has a local population suspicious of health workers.
Since the WHO started its operations in response to the outbreak, which started last August, there have been 386 attacks on health workers and infrastructure, with seven killed and 77 injured, WHO health emergencies chief Mike Ryan said at a briefing from Geneva.
“This is by far the deadliest attack so far,” he said.
Nearly 200 health responders have been evacuated from the residential camp, leading to the suspension of their work in a very rural area of some 30,000 people that is “difficult to work in at the best of times,” Ryan said.
Those killed in the attacks included a member of a vaccination team, two drivers and a police officer, the WHO said. None of its staff members were among the dead.
“We are heartbroken that people have died in the line of duty as they worked to save others,” Tedros said. “The world has lost brave professionals.” Six people were also injured in the attacks, including one WHO employee and staff from the Congo Ministry of Health.
“We are doing everything possible to bring the injured and front-line workers in the impacted areas to safety,” WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said.
In Mangina, one militiaman was killed by security forces, Miphy Bwata of the Congo Health Ministry’s communication office told dpa.