Deadly rebel attack stalls the battle against Ebola

Congolese rebels killed 15 civilians and abducted a dozen children in an attack at the epicentre of the latest deadly Ebola outbreak, Congo’s military said Sunday.

The attack again forced crucial virus containment efforts to be suspended.

“It will be very hard to stop the outbreak if this violence continues,” said the World Health Organization’s emergencies chief, Peter Salama, while WHO’s director-general condemned the attack.

It was “difficult to say how long” work would be affected, a WHO regional official said.

Confirmed Ebola cases have reached 202 in this outbreak, including 118 deaths.

Allied Democratic Forces rebels attacked Congolese army positions and several neighbourhoods of Beni on Saturday and into Sunday, said Capt. Mak Hazukay Mongha.

The UN peacekeeping mission said its troops exchanged fire with rebels in Beni’s Mayangose area.

Angry over the killings, residents carried four of the bodies to the town hall, where police dispersed them with tear gas.

While some health workers took refuge in a local hospital, the protesters destroyed a number of government buildings and blocked all traffic, Congo’s health ministry said.

Vehicles of aid organizations and the UN mission were pelted with stones, the UN-backed Radio Okapi reported.

The ADF rebels have killed hundreds of civilians in recent years and are just one of several militias active in Congo’s far northeast.

Another deadly attack last month in Beni forced the suspension of Ebola containment efforts for days, complicating work to track suspected contacts of infected people.

Since then, many of the new confirmed Ebola cases have been reported in Beni and the rate of new cases overall has more than doubled, alarming aid groups.

Health efforts in recent weeks had been starting to show results, and this new attack “will bring us back,” said Dr. Michel Yao, WHO’s incident manager for Ebola in North Kivu province.

Work in Beni was suspended on Sunday and “tomorrow, we don’t know yet,” Yao said, noting that the burials of victims can be very tense.

“We understand. We are sympathetic. It’s not easy to lose relatives. At the same time, it could affect the (outbreak) response.”

The attack came after two medical agents with the Congolese army were shot dead by another rebel group — the first time health workers have been killed in this outbreak.

Congo’s health minister called it a “dark day” for everyone fighting Ebola.