Young men stormed Mongbwalu General Hospital while it was treating Ebola patients, demanding two bodies of their kin, and gunfire forced staff to scramble to evacuate. The attack was the third on healthcare facilities in a week, underscoring mounting pressures
When gunfire rang out near Mongbwalu General Hospital on Sunday evening, the work of treating Ebola patients turned into an emergency scramble.
Angry young men stormed the hospital at the heart of the latest outbreak in eastern Congo. forcing medical staff to evacuate patients as they tried to get people out of danger. Dr. Richard Lokudu, the hospital’s medical director, said he did not know immediately whether anyone was hurt. “There was gunfire and the medics were trying to evacuate the patients and the staff. ” Lokudu told The Associated Press by phone. The attackers demanded that two bodies of their kin be handed over, Lokudu said.
“Mongbwalu General Hospital is on general alert,” he added, with no further details available as the turmoil unfolded.
The assault was the third attack on healthcare facilities within a week. in a region where medical workers are already struggling with a lack of resources to treat suspected Ebola cases. The outbreak is severe enough that the World Health Organization has declared it a public health emergency of international concern.
Bodies of those who died of Ebola can be highly contagious and can fuel further spread when people prepare them for burial and gather for funerals. That is part of the reason Congolese authorities have ordered that the dangerous work of burying suspected victims be managed wherever possible by authorities—an approach that can collide directly with grieving families and friends.
On Friday, the government said funeral wakes and gatherings of more than 50 people would be banned in northeastern Congo to curb the spread of the virus.
The tensions surrounding funerals have already surfaced violently nearby. On Saturday. residents of Mongbwalu—located in Ituri province—attacked and set fire to a tent set up by the Doctors Without Borders humanitarian group for suspected and confirmed Ebola cases. During that attack, 18 people with suspected Ebola infections left the facility and were now unaccounted for, Lokudu had said earlier.
Earlier in the week, on Thursday, another treatment center in the town of Rwampara was burned down after family members were banned from retrieving the body of a local man suspected to have died of Ebola.
The WHO has said the outbreak poses a “very high” risk for Congo, up from a previous categorization of “high,” while also saying the risk of global spread remains low.
On Sunday. the Congolese Ministry of Communication said on X that there were 904 suspected cases of Ebola. mostly in northeastern Ituri Province—an increase from the previously announced more than 700 suspected cases. The ministry also said the total suspected Ebola deaths stood at 119. but its separate numbers released for each region added up to 220. Officials could not be reached immediately to explain the discrepancy.
Another challenge is what the region does—or does not—have to stop the virus. There is no available vaccine for the Bundibugyo virus, a rare type of Ebola. The outbreak of Bundibugyo spread undetected for weeks in Ituri following the first reported death in late April in Bunia. the provincial capital. while authorities tested for another. more common Ebola virus and came up negative.
Even the international response has paid a price. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Saturday that three of its volunteers had died from the outbreak in Mongbwalu. The federation said it believed the three healthcare workers contracted the virus on March 27 while handling dead bodies as part of a humanitarian mission unrelated to Ebola. If confirmed, it would significantly push back the timeline of the outbreak.
The sequence of attacks. the funeral restrictions meant to prevent spread. and the continuing confusion over case and death totals all land in the same place: a response that depends not only on hospitals and medicines. but on whether communities feel safe—or heard—during their most vulnerable moments.
Ebola Mongbwalu General Hospital Congo Ituri province funeral restrictions gunfire Doctors Without Borders World Health Organization suspected cases Bundibugyo virus