Goma (DR Congo) (AFP)
The 2,200 deaths of the Ebola epidemic have been crossed in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo where the fight against the epidemic is disrupted after a double attack Thursday against teams of the response to the disease, a Saturday announced the Ministry of Health.
Declared on August 1, 2018, the outbreak killed 2,201 people, according to epidemiological bulletin published Saturday. The region of Beni (North Kivu) and neighboring Ituri are the most affected.
Six new confirmed cases were reported between 20 and 26 November, WHO said Thursday.
"Over the past week, violence, major civil unrest and targeted attacks have severely disrupted the Ebola response and restricted access to affected communities in multiple locations," says WHO.
Four Ebola response agents were killed in a double armed attack on Wednesday night in Biakato (Ituri) and Mangina (North Kivu), according to the WHO.
One of the victims, an official of the Congolese Ministry of Health in charge of vaccination, Belinda Kasongo, 30, was buried Saturday in Goma, reported an AFP photographer.
Since Thursday, "a few dozen people" of the two teams attacked "were brought back to Goma for their relocation," said a Congolese official of the response, Professor Steve Ahuka.
The World Food Program (WFP) announced Friday in Geneva that it has temporarily suspended food distributions as part of the Ebola response in Beni.
Beni was hit earlier this week by riots against the authorities and the United Nations. The inhabitants accuse them of doing nothing in the face of the massacres of civilians in the region.
More than 100 civilians were killed in November in killings attributed to the Ugandan armed group of ADF (Allied Democratic Forces).
© 2019 AFP