New attack on Ebola center in Congo; 1 militia member killed

A Congolese official says militia members have attacked an Ebola treatment center hours after another attack killed a staffer with the World Health Organisation.

Butembo city's deputy mayor, Patrick Kambale Tsiko, told The Associated Press on Saturday that the attackers armed with machetes tried to burn down the center in Katwa district overnight.

Tsiko says military and police guarding the center killed one militia member and detained five others.

An attack on Friday on a hospital in Butembo killed an epidemiologist from Cameroon who had been deployed to the Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo.

Tsiko cited witnesses as saying the attackers wrongly blamed foreigners for bringing the deadly virus to the region.

 

This Ebola outbreak is the second-deadliest in history. Rebel attacks and community resistance have greatly complicated containment efforts.