Thanks to FluTrackers for posting a report from Matininfos.net: Butembo / North Kivu: Aggression against the bereavement team of a dead lady from Ebola. Excerpt from the Google translation:
Tuesday, October 2, it is 14:30 in Butembo. The funeral procession of the DHS members (Safe and dignified burial) of the Ebola response arrives at the "Ngese" cemetery in the eastern part of the city. This team comes to bury a dead lady at the CTE (Ebola Treatment Center). While the Red Cross members who are taking care of the burial of the Ebola victims wanted to proceed with the burial, a group of young people with stones and sticks of the woods interfered.
These angry young people even wanted to rob the body of the deceased, claiming that she did not die of Ebola and that the coffin was empty, testifies a resident of Ngese who attended the scene.
"When the team wanted to bury the body of the dead Ebola woman in agreement with the family, at the cemetery there was a group of people waiting for the Ebola response team. The gang robbed the body of the team's hands by threatening to burn two Red Cross members alive while others were manipulating the body of the deceased," he says.
"The driver of the vehicle carrying the body was able to escape and bring the body back to the Ebola Treatment Center, ETC," he continued. Other young people pretended that the coffin used is too small compared to the size and mass of the deceased. As a result, the body was not buried on Tuesday. It spent the night at CTE.
"Attack the disease and not the agents"
The two Red Cross members escaped from the hands of their attackers and took refuge in a health center just meters from the cemetery. But young people have also attacked this health facility. Police sources say the altercations resulted in two injured DRC Red Cross workers, a ransomed aid vehicle and health center.
On the morning of Wednesday, October 3, a delegation of family members and relatives of the dead lady arrives at the CTE. With the response team, a compromise is found for the lady to be buried with dignity.
"It is the scourge of this Ebola outbreak that we must fight and not attack the aid workers and other volunteers who help fight this disease," advises Edgard Katembo Mateso, president of the civil society. Elements of the order were deployed to the place to disperse these young people.
Update: Thanks to Mary Marshall for sending the link to this Reuters report, which confirms the story and adds some details.
