UN pledges to fight Congo rebels and contain Ebola virus

The UN chief of peacekeeping operations pledged on Wednesday to do more with the Congolese government to help improve security in the east of the country, where frequent attacks by rebels undermine efforts to contain the country. 39, an epidemic of Ebola that killed more than 150 people.

Jean-Pierre Lacroix said that the United Kingdom "will do its best to contain the Ebola epidemic despite the security climate degraded by armed groups".

Lacroix particularly distinguished the rebels from the allied democratic forces. The group has killed more than 1,000 people in Beni and the surrounding region since October 2014.

"We promise to neutralize and hunt down these rebels because we have a mandate to keep the peace.Peace is one of the major elements of the response to the Ebola virus," said Mr. Lacroix.

The latest outbreak of Ebola reported on August 1 is the first to occur in the far northeastern Congo, where several rebel groups are active.

The Ministry of Health said that Ebola outbreak teams were attacked an average of three or four times a week, a level of violence never seen in the country's nine previous epidemics.

The Director General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, joined Lacroix in Beni as part of what he called the United States' joint efforts to combat Ebola.

The ministry said on Tuesday that there were currently 305 confirmed and probable cases of the deadly virus in this latest epidemic in Congo – among the largest Ebola outbreaks in the country in terms of numbers.

Tedros said that the magnitude was not surprising given the precarious security situation.

"We use everything we have on hand, of course it will take time, but after what we have seen today and all our activities, I think we can defeat Ebola," he said. he declared. "There is no need to broaden the response, it reinforces what we do, especially community supervision."

The struggle is particularly difficult because of the high population density, high mobility and displacement of the region, he added.