Kinshasa (AFP)
Twenty new cases of Ebola haemorrhagic fever were recorded in three days in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, near areas where the fight against the epidemic is "paralyzed" by insecurity, said Thursday the health authorities.
This is a sharp rise in new cases of transmission, which had fallen to "10 per week," said November 22 to AFP Congolese leader of anti-Ebola teams Jean-Jacques Muyembe.
The outbreak of 20 new cases was recorded between Monday and Wednesday in the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu.
Ten new cases were recorded on Wednesday alone in North Kivu, Mabalako. Six others were notified Tuesday, including "three traditional healers" (traditional doctors), according to the Multisectoral Committee for the Response to the Epidemic (CMRE).
Ebola response activity is "paralyzed" in three health zones (Beni, Biakato, Mangina) for "security reasons," says CMRE.
On November 28, a vaccination officer and two drivers were killed in an attack on an Ebola team facility in Biakato, Ituri. A policeman was killed in a simultaneous attack in Mangina (North Kivu).
The World Health Organization (WHO) and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) have withdrawn their non-Congolese teams from Biakato.
"Ebola was back, these attacks will revive the epidemic, and as a result more people will die," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus said after Biakato's double attack -Mangina.
On Thursday morning in Kinshasa, eight religious denominations made a commitment "to sensitize armed groups and young people who regularly attack facilities and agents of the response to Ebola, using existing channels".
This was explained to the press, Boniface Daegbo, head of the Caritas-Congo Catholic Charity Organization.
A total of 2,210 people have died from the Ebola outbreak since the declaration of the outbreak on August 1, 2018.
© 2019 AFP