Written by: Badr Ahmed

The Democratic Republic of Congo is facing a dangerous escalation in the Ebola outbreak crisis, amid repeated attacks on health facilities and the flight of infected patients, threatening to spiral out of control in the eastern regions of the country.

Ituri province in northeastern Congo witnessed at least three attacks targeting medical facilities treating Ebola patients, the most prominent of which was the attack on the Mongbwalo General Reference Hospital, where more than 20 patients fled after unknown individuals set fire to isolation tents belonging to Doctors Without Borders. .

Ebola isolation tents burned in Congo, raising fears of the epidemic spreading

The hospital's medical director, Dr. Richard Lukudu, said that some residents still deny the existence of the disease, explaining that relatives of Ebola victims are trying to retrieve the bodies and bury them in traditional ways, despite the risk of spreading the infection.

Lukudu added that 18 patients fled during the first attack, while the hospital witnessed a second attack on Sunday carried out by angry youths over the death of a Christian religious leader from Ebola, which caused seven more patients to flee.

He confirmed that one of the patients suspected of being infected died while trying to escape from the hospital, while Congolese police and army forces were forced to intervene in order to regain control of the health facility.

Health authorities fear that the disappearance of infected patients could accelerate the spread of the virus within the community, especially with the confirmation that at least one positive case remains at large outside of isolation centers.

The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, with more than 900 suspected cases, including 101 confirmed cases and 220 suspected deaths so far.

The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that the delay in detecting cases has left response teams scrambling to catch up, warning of the outbreak spreading to new areas.

Violence against medical personnel poses an additional challenge to containment efforts, echoing scenes from the Ebola outbreak between 2018 and 2020, when health centers were attacked, killing dozens of health workers.

The current outbreak has also spread to neighboring Uganda, which announced two new cases, bringing the total number of confirmed infections there to seven.