Why Ebola Centers Are Under Attack
In eastern Congo, Ebola isn't just fighting the virus — it's fighting the communities it's trying to save
When protesters stormed an Ebola treatment center in Rwampara, in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ituri province, last month, witnesses described a group of young men who forced their way into the facility after authorities refused to release the body of a friend believed to have died from the virus.
The following day, 18 people with suspected Ebola infections fled a separate facility in Mongbwalu after angry residents torched a treatment tent set up by Doctors Without Borders. Those 18 individuals are unaccounted for.
By Sunday evening, Mongbwalu General Hospital was on alert. Young men had forced their way in, demanding the bodies of two relatives as medical staff scrambled to evacuate patients and gunfire crackled outside. It was the third attack on a health care facility in a single week.
What’s going on?
