Ebola centre attacker killed in DRC

 

The dead man was a member of the Mai-Mai rebel group, Sylvain Kanyamanda, the mayor of Butembo in the North Kivu province, told AFP.

 

"The security forces prevented the attackers from crossing a 40-metre (130-foot) perimeter" around the centre where Ebola patients were being treated.

 

North Kivu province is at the centre of a new outbreak of the viral disease which has killed more than 1,100 people since last August out of about 1,600 infected, according to the authorities. Among these, 99 health workers have been infected, and 34 have died.

 

The Ebola fightback in the region is hampered by the presence of warring armed groups, including the Mai-Mai, and by locals in denial who refuse treatment and ignore prevention advice.

 

Last week, the UN special representative to the DRC blasted rumours that the world body was trying to cash in on Ebola.

 

Leila Zerrougui, head of the UN mission to the sprawling central African nation, slammed as "sheer madness" local speculation that "there is no illness, that they want to poison us because they are trying to cash in on us."

 

The outbreak is the biggest on Congolese soil since the disease was first recorded in the country, then Zaire, in 1976.

 

An epidemic in 2014-16 killed 11,300 people in West Africa.