Armed Men Abduct Six-Year-Old Ebola Patient From Butembo Hospital, Congo Authorities Say Found Safe

Congolese authorities searching for a six-year-old Ebola patient and her mother after armed men stormed the hospital where they were being treated in Butembo said the girl has been found and is "doing well."

“- Published A six-year-old Ebola patient, who Congolese authorities were searching for after armed men stormed the hospital where she was being treated, has been found and is "doing well", a local health official has told the BBC”

BBC

BBC reported that Dr Lubambo Maboko Gaston said the child and her mother were taken by "very angry" men from a hospital in the eastern city of Butembo two days earlier.

BBC

On Friday, Gaston said the child and mother turned up at an Ebola treatment centre roughly 18km from Butembo, and "Her condition is currently considered stable," the BBC quoted him as saying.

The BBC said the ongoing outbreak has seen more than 230 deaths and 890 cases confirmed, while the Oz Arab Media account said it has resulted in more than 230 deaths and 890 confirmed cases as well.

The BBC also described how Ebola treatment facilities have come under attack multiple times, including police firing shots in the air in Mongbwalu after angry crowds attempted to reclaim bodies.

The BBC said Gaston told it the girl and her mother had been taken by "very angry" men from a hospital in Butembo, and it linked the abduction to suspicion and fear surrounding Ebola treatment centres.

BBC quoted local politician Luc Malembe saying, "Ebola is an invention by outsiders - it does not exist," as crowds set fire to isolation tents in Rwampara after they were prevented from taking the body of a man thought to have died from Ebola.

Oz Arab Media

In Nigeria, TRT Afrika reported authorities arrested at least eight people in recent weeks for spreading false information on social media, threatening tougher penalties after a wave of misinformation linked to a school kidnapping.

TRT Afrika said Oyo police spokesperson Olushola Alayande told AFP that "The command has responded to not less than 15 misleading publications," describing a pattern of sensational claims and speculative narratives presented as facts.

The same TRT Afrika report said misinformation also turned deadly in Lagos, where a 24-year-old motorcyclist was killed by a mob after a false claim circulated that bandits were invading the city.

The BBC said the outbreak was declared on May 15, while also noting that transmission had been going undetected for some time, and it attributed the surge to a rare species of Ebola known as Bundibugyo.

“KINSHASA – Authorities in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are searching for a six-year-old Ebola patient and her mother after armed men stormed the hospital where they were being treated”

Panay News

The BBC reported that there is currently no vaccine for Bundibugyo and that the World Health Organisation has said it could take months for a jab to be ready, while also saying the WHO has pledged $3.9m to tackling the outbreak.

The BBC added that Africa CDC has announced a $319m budget, and it said cases are concentrated in Ituri, South Kivu and North Kivu, where the six-year-old girl was taken from the hospital on Monday.

The BBC warned that conflict in eastern DR Congo is making it more difficult to tackle the Ebola outbreak, and it said the M23 rebel group is in control of large parts of both North and South Kivu.

Oz Arab Media said the volatile security situation in eastern DR Congo, exacerbated by the presence of the M23 rebel group, complicates the response to the epidemic, even as it described the girl as having been found and doing well.