More than 2,500 people have now died in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ebola outbreak, which is spreading exponentially across an area larger than France, senior United Nations Ebola coordinator Julien Harneis said on Friday.
Speaking on a video call from the northeastern Congolese city of Bunia, Harneis said the outbreak is outrunning the effort to contain it. “The epidemic is spreading to an area that is bigger than France, and the outbreak is growing faster and wider than the Ebola response,” he said. “And all of this is happening in an area that has had three decades of conflict and is generating huge humanitarian needs.”
Funding running out
Harneis called for more aid, saying the existing pool of funds is set to run out within weeks.
A further problem is paying the tens of thousands of people working on the response. Banking services were disrupted after the government stopped commercial flights, hobbling the means by which cash is delivered to banks.
Health workers under attack
Health workers are being attacked by residents angered and frightened by the outbreak, and are themselves falling sick and dying, Harneis said. There have been more than 260 attacks on health workers in the past six months, and eight have been killed.
“When we do respond, apart from the threat from the virus, healthcare workers and frontline workers have been attacked by youths, ambulances have been burned and stoned, and the healthcare facilities have been attacked,” he said. “Fear translates into angry young men who start throwing stones at their object of fear, the ambulance.”
Aid workers have previously said residents believe conspiracy theories that the outbreak is a hoax, and react angrily when health restrictions prevent them from personally burying their dead.
The largest in Congo’s history
Congo’s 17th Ebola epidemic became the biggest in the country’s history by case count in late July, surpassing the 2018–2020 outbreak. The toll has climbed steeply since the World Health Organization reported it had passed 2,000 deaths and become the fastest-moving Ebola outbreak on record on August 12.
Ada Derana carried the report, attributing it to The Financial Express.
