Accessibility links

Breaking News

Ebola Treatment Center in Congo Reopens After Attack 


FILE - Burned structures are seen after attackers set fire to an Ebola treatment center run by Medecins Sans Frontieres in the district of Katwa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Feb. 25, 2019.
FILE - Burned structures are seen after attackers set fire to an Ebola treatment center run by Medecins Sans Frontieres in the district of Katwa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Feb. 25, 2019.

An Ebola treatment center located at the epicenter of the current outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has resumed operations after it was attacked last month, the country's health ministry said Saturday.

The center run by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in the district of Katwa was set on fire Feb. 24 by unknown attackers, forcing staff to evacuate patients.

It reopened Saturday, the ministry said in a statement.

"For now it is managed by the ministry in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF," it said, referring to the U.N. children's fund.

Aid workers have faced mistrust in some areas as they seek to contain the Ebola outbreak, which has become the most severe in Congo's history. The WHO has said the distrust is fueled by false rumors about treatments and preference for traditional medicine.

Another MSF center in Butembo was also attacked in late February but reopened a week later.

MSF has pulled out from the area since the two attacks and has not said when it might resume medical activities.

The current Ebola epidemic, first declared last August, is believed to have killed at least 561 people so far and infected over 300 more.

  • 16x9 Image

    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

XS
SM
MD
LG