A rebel killed during an attack on a hospital in eastern DRC

The DRC army has repelled an attack on a hospital by a rebel group, killing a militiaman, police said Saturday during the latest attack on medical staff trying to contain an Ebola outbreak in east of the country.

Mai Mai armed militia rebels attacked the Katwa hospital near Butembo town at around 3:40 am (0340 GMT), AFP officers said.

"We resisted and repelled the attack while these" Mai-Mai "had a PKM machine gun," said Butembo police chief Colonel Paul Ngoma.

He added that one rebel had been killed and four captured.

The attack came a day after a WHO doctor, Richard Valery Mouzoko Kiboung, was shot dead during an badault on armed militiamen at Butembo University Hospital. , according to the World Health Organization.

The WHO said the epidemiologist had been deployed to help fight Ebola in the region.

These attacks are the latest in a series of badaults against teams battling a nearly nine-month-old Ebola epidemic that has claimed the lives of nearly 850 people.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Friday condemned the attack on Butembo University Hospital and called on the Congolese authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice.

DR Congo declared its tenth Ebola outbreak last August in the northeastern province of North Kivu, before the virus spread to the neighboring region of Ituri.

Local organizations said the number of deaths from the Ebola virus was increasing.

An updated report from the health ministry, released Wednesday, indicates 843 deaths since the month of August.

The 9 April WHO data estimated the number of confirmed or probable cases at 1,186, of which 751 had been fatal.

The epidemic is the second deadliest ever recorded after the outbreak that hit West Africa in 2014-2016, killing more than 11,300 people.

Efforts to reverse highly contagious hemorrhagic fever in the DRC have been hampered by fighting but also by community resistance to preventive measures, safe care facilities and safe burials.

On March 9, a Butembo treatment center was attacked and a policeman was killed and a health worker injured. It was the third attack on this center.

On February 24, a treatment center in Katwa was set on fire.