Arson attacks highlight the stalled Ebola response in Congo

Arson attacks on Ebola treatment centers in eastern Congo—followed by community backlash, displacement, and aid shortages—are exposing how violence and fragile health systems are undermining the response to a rare Ebola outbreak declared a global health emerge

When flames tore through Ebola treatment centers in eastern Congo—first in Rwampara and later in Mongbwalu—authorities weren’t just fighting a rare virus. They were fighting the breakdown of trust, the absence of resources, and a region already saturated with armed conflict.

Arson attacks on Ebola treatment centers in two towns at the heart of the outbreak show how authorities are dealing with a stack of serious complications. including anger in local communities. violence tied to armed rebel groups. the displacement of large numbers of people. and cuts to local and international support that experts say have stripped health facilities in vulnerable areas.

“ A devastating set of emergencies are converging,” said the Physicians for Human Rights nonprofit.

The attacks struck places where case counts are highest: the Rwampara and Mongbwalu areas. Those burnings land amid a wider reality in eastern Congo—where violence has been persistent for years, and where rebel control can determine what health access looks like, and who holds authority.

Eastern Congo has a constant threat of violence

Violence by dozens of separate rebel groups has roiled eastern Congo for years. Some of those groups have links to foreign countries or Islamic State.

The Rwanda-backed M23 rebels are in control of parts of the region. In the northeastern Ituri Province—the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak—the Congolese government still largely controls the area, but that control is tenuous.

In Ituri, the Allied Democratic Forces, a Ugandan Islamist group linked to Islamic State, is one of the dominant rebel groups and is responsible for violent attacks against civilian targets.

Before the outbreak, Doctors Without Borders said in an assessment of the situation in Ituri that insecurity had worsened recently, causing doctors and nurses to flee. The assessment described “catastrophic” conditions in some parts of the health system.

Nearly a million people displaced—making spread harder to stop

The outbreak is unfolding in communities already pushed off their land and living with fragile health care.

According to the United Nations humanitarian office, nearly 1 million people in Ituri have been displaced from their homes by conflict.

Gabriela Arenas, Regional Operations Coordinator at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said that means the Ebola outbreak is “unfolding in communities already facing insecurity, displacement and fragile health care systems.”

That instability also raises fears about spread to large displacement camps near the city of Bunia, where the first cases were reported.

Authorities have announced more than 700 suspected Ebola cases and more than 170 suspected deaths, mostly in Ituri. But cases have also been reported in two other eastern provinces—North Kivu and South Kivu—where M23 are in control. The outbreak has also reached neighboring Uganda.

That means, in practice, part of the outbreak response in Congo is being managed by the government, while other parts are handled by rebel authorities, with an array of aid agencies also supporting the effort.

Aid cuts last year left health workers without basic protection

Health experts say international aid cuts made last year by the United States and other rich nations have been devastating for eastern Congo because the region has so many problems stacked on top of one another.

Thomas McHale, public health director at Physicians for Human Rights, said the cuts “reduced the capacity to detect and respond to infectious disease outbreaks.” Congo has had more than a dozen previous Ebola outbreaks.

On the ground. aid groups say they are still fighting without core supplies needed to protect health workers and safely handle cases. They describe missing equipment such as face shields and suits. testing kits. and body bags and other materials required for safe burial of bodies of victims. which can be highly contagious.

Julienne Lusenge, president of Women’s Solidarity for Inclusive Peace and Development, an aid group operating a small hospital near Bunia, said, “We have made requests to different partners, but we have not yet really received anything.”

She added: “We only have hand sanitizer and a few masks for the nurses.”

The Bundibugyo type of Ebola virus responsible for the outbreak has no approved vaccine or treatment.

Health workers are not only battling logistics—they are battling local anger

On top of violence and shortages, the response has been hit by community backlash.

The burning of two treatment centers—one in Rwampara and another in Mongbwalu—shows how skepticism and frustration in some communities are further complicating efforts to stop the disease.

Colin Thomas-Jensen. director of impact at the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative. said the attacks may reflect the “built-in skepticism and anger” of people in eastern Congo about how the region has been treated. He pointed to years of violence from foreign-linked rebel groups and a failure of their government and international peacekeepers to protect them.

Another focus of anger has been strict protocols around burial of suspected Ebola victims. In the early stages of the outbreak, authorities have taken charge wherever they can to prevent further spread of the disease when families prepare bodies and gather for funerals.

The first burning of an Ebola center in Rwampara was carried out by a group of local youths trying to retrieve the body of a friend who died, according to witnesses and police. The witnesses said the crowd accused the foreign aid group operating the center of lying about Ebola.

In northeastern Congo, authorities have now banned funeral wakes and gatherings of more than 50 people to curb the spread. Armed soldiers and police are guarding some burials carried out by aid workers.

The response’s obstacles are not happening one at a time. They are intersecting—violence limiting access, displacement swelling populations at risk, aid cuts weakening health facilities, and community distrust erupting into arson just as treatment needs to operate at full capacity.

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AP writers Mark Banchereau and Wilson McMakin contributed to this report.

Congo Ebola outbreak Ebola treatment centers arson Ituri displacement M23 rebels Allied Democratic Forces aid cuts Physicians for Human Rights Doctors Without Borders Bundibugyo Ebola Bunia