Arsonists attacked an Ebola treatment center in Rwampara, one of the towns at the center of an ongoing and deadly disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, after locals were stopped from retrieving the body of a local man who'd died of Ebola, the Associated Press reported Thursday.
Flames and smoke rise from an Ebola treatment center in Rwampara, Congo, Thursday, May 21, 2026.
THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2026Witnesses tell AP that objects inside the treatment center and the body of a person inside were set on fire by locals who became angry when they weren't allowed to retrieve the body of a friend who'd died (contact with the body of an Ebola victim is an easy way for the disease to spread, and authorities are handling burials whenever possible in the region).
The World Health Organization reports there are more than 600 suspected cases and 148 suspected deaths from the ongoing Ebola outbreak, and those numbers are expected to rise.
Reports emerge that a person has died of Ebola near the city of Bukavu, more than 300 miles from the outbreak’s epicenter, highlighting officials' fears that the outbreak is more widespread than official figures show.
