Violence against healthcare workers in DRC hampers Ebola response
More than 260 healthcare workers have been attacked in the past six months and eight have been killed, warned United Nations Ebola coordinator Julien Harneis.
"Fear translates into angry young men who start throwing stones at their object of fear, the ambulance," he said on Friday from the northeastern city of Bunia.
He described incidents in which ambulances have been burned and health facilities attacked.
The attacks are "obviously terrifying because people are already risking their lives to deal with Ebola,” Harneis said, noting that about 160 healthcare workers have themselves fallen ill with Ebola and 43 have died.
DR Congo Ebola outbreak 'growing exponentially' with more than 2,500 dead
The Red Cross reported 11 incidents against its volunteers in the DRC, nine of whom have been injured, while some ambulances and equipment damaged and destroyed in attacks.
The latest incident was last Wednesday in Beni, in North Kivu province, where three volunteers were assaulted and equipment destroyed.
Two other volunteers had been injured the previous day in Haut-Uélé while attempting to carry out burial, and a convoy of the Ugandan Red Cross in Aru, in Ituri, on 17 August was attacked, injuring several members and three ambulances were hit with stones and vandalised.
Cash transfers disrupted
Aid workers have said that some residents believe conspiracy theories that the outbreak is a hoax, and others have reacted angrily to restrictions preventing them from personally burying loved ones who have died from Ebola.
The epidemic, which has killed 2,606 people among the 5,458 confirmed cases, is "growing exponentially", Harneis warned.
"The epidemic is spreading to an area that is bigger than France, and the outbreak is growing faster and wider than the Ebola response," he said.
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"All of this is happening in an area that has had three decades of conflict and is generating huge humanitarian needs."
The International Red Cross said every incident involving its volunteers or equipment made it harder to respond to the epidemic.
Another challenge is paying the tens of thousands of people hired to tackle the outbreak, Harneis said.
Banking services have been disrupted after the government stopped commercial flights which were used to transport cash to banks.
(with Reuters)