This report tells us a lot about how Ebola and endemic violence complicate each other. Via Koma Ebola: Oicha IDPs at risk of Ebola contamination. The Google translation, with my bolding:
In Oicha, the capital of Beni, several hundred people displaced by the insecurity created by armed groups are exposed to the # bola epidemic. These IDPs [internally displaced persons] share classrooms with students.
One of the main settlements for these IDPs is Mwangaza Primary and Secondary School, visited by Koma Ebola. Arriving in this makeshift camp, we immediately see critical hygiene conditions. Hand washing kits hardly exist. However, the Ebola virus disease that has been raging in the province for more than a year is not ignored despite the difficult living conditions. It worries these displaced people.
"We wash our hands with soap or ashes after big needs. We want to return to our respective environments, our children suffer here," said a displaced person encountered on the site.
"In the fight against Ebola, we try to maintain our latrines, but we do not have appropriate materials. We need support in that direction. (...). We use the same basins to wash the latrines, wash our clothes and wash our bodies, it is serious one is exposed to diseases, "says another displaced.
Mwangaza School has not been occupied by IDPs for several years. During the school year, as it has been since Monday, students and displaced persons alternate. In the morning, the displaced people take their belongings out to leave the classrooms free for the students. And in the evening, they go back there.
For the head of this school, protection kits against Ebola are crucial to saving lives. "These IDPs do not take care of sanitation to protect children (...). We have a deficiency of kits like washbasins, gloves and pitchers."
It must be said, these displaced are forced to live miserably for over 5 years now. They are waiting for the pacification of the Beni area to regain their natural environment and take care of their fields, source of their income. But in the meantime, they face a second enemy, the Ebola virus disease.
