Gunmen Storm Mongbwalu General Hospital, Demand Two Bodies in DR Congo Ebola Attack

Gunmen stormed Mongbwalu General Hospital in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, forcing staff to evacuate Ebola patients during rounds of heavy gunfire while the attackers demanded two bodies of their kin be handed over, Dr. Richard Lokudu told The Associated Press.

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Lokudu said, “Mongbwalu General Hospital is on general alert,” and it was not immediately clear whether anyone was hurt in the Sunday attack.

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The incident was the third violent episode in Ituri province within a week, where the latest Ebola outbreak is linked to Bundibugyo virus disease (BVD) and where there is no treatment or vaccine.

The World Health Organization recommends “safe and dignified burials” to curb transmission, and the Peoples Gazette Nigeria report says burials organised in unsafe manners have been identified as the leading cause of transmission.

In the same outbreak, Doctors Without Borders said a treatment centre set up in a town at the epicentre of the crisis was burned to the ground by Congolese locals, and during that attack 18 people with suspected Ebola infections fled the temporary facility and were unaccounted for, Lokudu said.

NBC News reported that at Mongbwalu General Referral Hospital, 18 Ebola patients fled Saturday after “unidentified individuals” burned tents erected by Medecins Sans Frontieres where patients were being isolated.

Associated Press

On Sunday, the Mongbwalu hospital came under four waves of attacks by young people mobilized by relatives of a Christian religious leader who died of Ebola, and NBC News said seven other patients escaped while police and soldiers had to mobilise to restore order.

Across the outbreak, the Congolese government said on Sunday that 904 suspected Ebola cases had been recorded with 119 deaths, while CBS News said the head of the World Health Organization told Reuters that at least 220 people were now suspected to have died and that health workers were “playing catch-up.”

The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, and Global News reported that the WHO declared the outbreak a public health emergency with more than 900 suspected cases and 220 suspected deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“At least 220 people are now suspected to have died from the ongoing Ebola outbreak, the head of the World Health Organization said Monday, according to the Reuters news agency”

CBS News

Global News also reported that 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.

Ugandan health authorities reported two new Ebola cases Monday, bringing infections there to seven, after the outbreak in Congo was linked to a patient who was admitted to a hospital in Kampala on May 11 and died three days later before it was known he was suffering from Ebola.

In Canada, Dr. Joss Reimer said during a virtual press conference that “comprehensive” screening has been in place at Canadian airport inspection kiosks since Wednesday and includes additional questions asking returning airline passengers whether they have been to the Democratic Republic of Congo or neighbouring Uganda within 21 days of arriving in Canada.