Via Radio Okapi: Butembo: Gunmen attack Ebola treatment center and kill guard. The Google translation:
Unidentified gunmen attacked the Ebola treatment center in Butembo town on Wednesday night and killed one of the policemen in charge of the center, the mayor said. All patients found, as well as the nursing staff are safe and sound, says Sylvain Kanyamanda.
A statement from the Ministry of Health indicates that at the time of the attack, 38 suspected patients and 12 confirmed Ebola patients were being treated in the center.
Of the suspected patients, 32 fled. Eight patients among the confirmed cases were found in their single rooms.
The Ministry of Health is continuing research to find the other 4 confirmed Ebola patients on the run. For the moment, the patients have been provisionally transferred to the Butembo transit center.
The Ebola treatment center in Butembo was attacked around 18:00 local time, three days after another community center in the Katwa district burned down.
The security sources attribute these two attacks to a group of militiamen Mai Mai hitherto unidentified.
Negative impact on the response
"There are a lot of misconceptions, there are a lot of amalgams that have been made, pastors and healers who are involved and who claim to cure Ebola, you have to know that there is no pastor who can cure Ebola," said the minister, during a meeting to evaluate the response to Goma, from 26 to 27 February, before declaring that Ebola is a deadly, highly contagious disease that is far more dangerous than security problems.
According to Oly Ilunga, in six months there have been more than 500 Ebola deaths.
