Twelve Red Cross volunteers have been injured and an ambulance set on fire in 11 violent incidents during the 100 days since the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) declared its Ebola outbreak, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement said Monday.

Three volunteers taking part in response activities were attacked and injured by a group of individuals in Beni, North Kivu province, on 19 August, according to the statement, issued jointly by the Red Cross societies of the DRC and Uganda, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

“Attacks against volunteers and humanitarian personnel are unacceptable,” the Movement said, warning that every injured responder and damaged ambulance “reduces the capacity to provide emergency health and humanitarian services, putting more lives at risk and making the epidemic harder to contain.”

A day earlier, two volunteers were injured while attempting to conduct a safe and dignified burial – the practice of trained teams in protective gear burying the highly contagious remains of Ebola victims – in the village of Malikuti in Haut-Uélé province, and were evacuated to Isiro for medical care. This burial practice, while protecting communities from infection, denies families the chance to touch their lost loved ones, rites central to funerals in much of the region, making the restrictions a major source of anger toward response teams.

On 17 August, a Ugandan Red Cross convoy supporting the cross-border response was attacked in Aru, Ituri province, leaving one team member seriously injured and two ambulances pelted with stones and vandalised.

“These attacks serve as an alarming reminder of the risks faced by humanitarian workers and volunteers engaged in the fight against epidemics and emergencies,” the IFRC added. “Respect for humanitarian personnel and humanitarian activities is essential to ensuring that communities affected by epidemics and other crises continue to receive the assistance and services they urgently need.”

Attacks on health escalate

More than 260 attacks on health workers have been recorded in the DRC over the past six months, and eight health workers have been killed, UN Senior Ebola Coordinator Julien Harneis told reporters from Bunia on Friday.

“When we do respond, apart from the threat from the virus, healthcare workers and frontline workers have been attacked by youths, ambulances have been burned and stoned, and the healthcare facilities have been attacked,” Harneis said, “which is obviously terrifying because people are already risking their lives to deal with Ebola.”

Another 160 healthcare workers have been infected with Ebola, of which 43 have died. Many have not been fully paid for their life-endangering work as the health ministry and international community struggle to marshal funds to the response’s frontlines.

“Almost on a daily basis we face some kind of reaction from the communities,” Dr Thierno Baldé, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) incident manager for the response, said last week, a day after another ambulance was attacked. “These are difficult situations. People are having their relatives who are sick, who are dying.”

Attack on Ebola Hospital in Eastern Congo Echoes Past Violence Against Health Workers

Some 5,290 people have been infected, and 2,516 have died since the outbreak was declared on 15 May, according to health ministry figures published Friday.

The epidemic, driven by the Bundibugyo species of the virus for which no licensed vaccine or treatment exists, is the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record and the deadliest in the DRC’s history, with a case fatality rate of 47.6%.

Africa CDC warned last week that the outbreak may be three times its officially reported size, with only 30-40% of cases detected.

“The epidemic is spreading to an area that is bigger than France,” Harneis said. “And the outbreak is growing faster and wider than the Ebola response. And all of this is happening in an area that has ​had ​three decades of conflict and is generating huge humanitarian ​needs.”

Attacks on responders during the DRC’s 2018-2020 Ebola epidemic, previously the country’s deadliest, killed more than 25 health workers.

Image Credits: Anicet Kimonyo.