Two-Pronged Battle: Fight Against Ebola and Attacks Against Medical Personnel

"Our staff has to lie about being doctors in order to treat people."
"When our doctors try to find housing, some say they are lawyers [to avoid suspicion that usually falls on health workers]."
Tariq Riebel, emergency response director, Congo, International Rescue Committee

"The tragedy is that we have the technical means to stop Ebola, but until all parties halt attacks on the response, it will be very difficult to end this outbreak."
Tedros Adhanom, WHO director general

"According to witnesses at the scene, these militiamen wanted all the expatriates to go  home because according to them, Ebola does not exist in Butembo."
"They said they will continue [their attacks] if these expatriates do not return as soon as possible."
Patrick Kambale Tsiko, deputy mayor, Butembo, Democratic Republic of Congo

"We need to call the situation what it is."
"Countries will be forced to act if the outbreak spills across [Congo's] borders, but by then, the cost of response will be much greater and the prospects for containment will be much more difficult."
Jennifer Nuzzo, senior scholar, John Hopkins Center for Health Security

Health workers have been attacked as they tackle ther DR Congo Ebola outbreak AFP

Doctors engaged in a professional, humanitarian task fighting yet another deadly Ebola outbreak fear to appear in the uniforms that reflect their profession, so they conceal their identities in Congo, hoping to avoid the harassment and violence that erupts when health professionals enter a village wearing white clothing distinguishing them for what they practise. In Congo, where another Ebola epidemic is spreading, rampant misinformation spreads right alongside the disease.

Outsiders appearing in the country creates an atmosphere of stark xenophobia, with people convinced that health workers spread the disease, having brought it into the country with them, despite the pretense of battling it. There were 119 attacks in 2019 against health workers, logged by the World Health Organization. What's more, eighty-five health workers have in that period, been wounded or killed in attacks designed to drive them from the country.

Experts point out that after attacks take place, Ebola infections have a tendency to spike since emergency responders are forced by deadly violence to protect themselves, taking cover and halting the distribution of vaccines to boost immunity against Ebola. The infection count is rising alongside the death count. Concerns are growing at Congo's Ministry of Health that North Kivu province in Congo will soon mirror the battle against hemorrhagic fever that killed close to twelve thousand people across three African countries.

A Cameroonian epidemiologist killed in an attack while working in the city of Butembo resulted in hundreds of Congolese doctors and nurses massing in a street protest, threatening to strike unless the city's mayor took steps to protect them, with stronger security. A WHO team was attacked in early May after burying an Ebola victim, when dozens of gunmen stormed the health team's complex, exchanging bullets with security forces.

Health workers marched in Butembo on Wednesday to protest the violence they're facing. The demonstration comes in the wake of an attack last Friday in which an epidemiologist from Cameroon was shot and killed.

Al-hadji Kudra Maliro/AP

Armed fighters are convinced that foreign health workers are responsible for the epidemic in Congo. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention withdrew its Ebola experts from North Kivu last year when an armed group attacked a Congolese military site close to where the CDC team was travelling. Its 17 people in the cities of Kinshasa and Goma are set to be increased to 40, according to CDC director Robert Redfield. "The outbreak response is not succeeding despite all the efforts", he remarked.

Goma has a population of a million, and it has direct flights to transit hubs including Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Entebbe, Uganda. "We make a mistake underestimating the complexity of this outbreak", explained Mr. Redfield in view of experts urging the global community for increased resources to Congo. The outbreak wracking Congo will not remain in Congo, and this concern for neighbouring countries, along with an extended reach -- through international travel -- of the communicable disease, speaks to the seriousness of the situation.

"We're at a breaking point", Stephen Morrison, senior vice-president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, tracking the outbreak, warned. "Violent attacks are winning, and infections are unchecked." According to a 2019 Human Rights Watch report, over 140 armed groups operated in North and South Kivu provinces last year. Leading medical workers to abandon the SUVs they drive that reveal their identities, in favour of motorcycles, and civilian clothing.

A UN armored vehicle and guards outside the Ebola response headquarters in Beni, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on December 27, 2018.

Alexis Huguet/AFP/Getty Images