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Butembo (DR Congo) (AFP) – The UN special representative in DR Congo has denied rumors that the world organization was trying to profit from an Ebola epidemic that had cost life to more than 1,000 people.
Leila Zerrougui, head of the United Nations Mission to the Central African nation, visited Friday in the town of Butembo, in the east of the country. to cash on us. "
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said additional resources were needed to deal with the epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Some UN teams taking part in the fight against the second deadliest Ebola outbreak ever recorded after the epidemic that claimed the lives of 11,300 people in West Africa in 2014-2016 were attacked and were even killed.
The epidemic has already killed 1,105 people out of 1,649 cases reported since last August in North Kivu province, where Butembo is located, according to the latest official data.
"We are here to work with the authorities but we are also here to tell the people that it is really incredible that those who came to take care of you can be attacked," Zerrougui said in remarks reported by United Nations radio Okapi.
Last week, doctors said they were facing suspicion and hostility in some areas, especially after one of their vehicles had been involved in a fatal accident in Butembo, in which a motorcyclist taxi died.
– Resistance to preventive measures –
A violent reaction from the victims' colleagues resulted in the closure of all the shops and commercial activities in the city.
The response to Ebola had already been hampered by mounting insecurity and attacks on medical teams battling hemorrhagic fever while some communities resisted preventive measures, health care facilities and safe burials.
DR Congo's Minister of Health, Oly Ilunga, warned that every time teams are prevented from doing their job, the number of new cases and deaths from Ebola is on the rise.
Last month also witnessed the murder of a Cameroonian doctor fighting the Ebola virus during an attack on Butembo Hospital.
The World Health Organization had initially hoped that a new vaccine could help contain the epidemic.
But in recent weeks, senior WHO officials have acknowledged that insecurity, meager financial resources and local politicians reprimanding the population against health workers have seriously compromised containment.
On Wednesday, in Butembo, about ten people died in the attack of armed assailants, further compromising the fight against the spread of the Ebola virus.
DR Congo's Ebola coordinator, Justus Nsio, insisted that the attacks were "isolated" insurgent work and that he did not think that "the whole community" was trying to undermine anti-terrorist operations. -Ebola.
Several armed groups are active around Butembo and near Beni.
The WHO said Thursday that the response to the epidemic "continues to be hampered by insecurity", citing the May 3 attack against an interment team in Katwa, then the incidents of Butembo the following days.
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