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KARAMBI, Uganda (AP) – The van carrying the coffin of the Ebola victim has finally arrived. The woman's relatives were relieved. But a small group of young people whistled with anger.
They watched the burial team carefully dressed in protective clothing and gloves, eager to fight. They grabbed the rope to lower the coffin into the pit and used it as a barrier blocking the passage of the van. A staff was brandished.
"You will not leave this place if you do not bury the coffin and do not fill the place of land," he said, concerned about the contamination.
The second most deadly Ebola virus outbreak in history has spread this week from eastern Congo to Uganda and confrontation during the burial of one of the first victims, last Thursday, was a flash on the resistance that health teams have faced for months at the border.
More than 1,400 people have died since the outbreak was declared in August, and the response has been hampered by misinformation and fear in a region that has not seen Ebola before. Ugandan health workers had long been preparing for a comprehensive response if the virus had been screened at border crossings. Earlier this week, he did it.
A family exposed to the Ebola virus while traveling to the Congo returned home by an unguarded path. Some already had symptoms. At a time when Ugandan authorities who had been alerted by Congolese colleagues found them, a 5-year-old boy was vomiting blood. He was the first to die.
Her 50-year-old grandmother, identified by a family member as Agnes Mbambu, was next. Already bleeding, she went straight to a local hospital when she returned to Uganda, family members and health officials said. On Thursday morning, Ugandan officials confirmed his death.
The burial took all day and all night as health workers gathered together to do it safely. The Ebola virus can spread quickly through close contact with the body fluids of infected people. The need for safe burials is at odds with traditional customs of asking loved ones to wash and dress the corpse. In the Congo, this has created problems.
In Karambi village Thursday, however, tensions came from the expectation of the disease and its concern.
Dark men were sitting on wooden chairs in the enclosure of a parent. Five women, people in professional mourning, were resting in the grass. The woman's brother, Mbusa Godwin, said they had respected the doctors' recommendations to keep only a few people in mourning.
"Everyone was scared," said another family member, Rusenge Willy. "Everyone was afraid because we were so scared of the disease."
But as dusk approached, there was no record of the burial team, although the Ugandan authorities issued a statement a few hours earlier, in which they claimed that the woman was already buried. The idea of night burials seemed disgraceful to me.
"It's not right," said the victim's brother, Gaspari Kinyama, searching the burial ground among coffee trees. "At least she will be buried here among her people. She has that right. "
At 7:30 pm the funeral procession arrived. Tensions increased when the burial team changed into protective clothing by the light of car headlights. When the leader of the team did not commit to covering the coffin to the satisfaction of the young men – we did not know why – the confrontation was almost ended in violence.
Ugandan authorities are now trying to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus by following everyone who has had contact with the infected family. At least 98 such people have been identified, said the Uganda Office for the World Health Organization.
Community participation is essential and the next few days will test Uganda's ability to contain the virus in an area that is conducive to anti-government sentiment. Kasese, the city closest to the home, has been under tension since the central government imprisoned a popular traditional leader in late 2016, accusing it of attempting to form a separatist republic.
A few days ago, the leader's mother died. Her funeral is expected this weekend. Now, the government says it is restricting public gatherings to contain Ebola, which could provoke anger from those who wish to meet and mourn.
Although Uganda has been confronted with several Ebola outbreaks in the past, it is the first time that this mountainous region is affected by the virus. This echoes across the border in eastern Congo, where cautious residents have attacked or fled health workers.
Some people here are also suspicious.
The burial of Mbambu, Uganda's second Ebola victim, was originally scheduled to take place around 20 kilometers away near his father's grave. But the local community rejected it, said Rhoda Katsumbiro, a resident of the village where her casket is currently resting.
"The family members present thought that they would be affected," Katsumbiro said. "They were scared. We had to bring it here.
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