Arson attacks on Ebola treatment centers in eastern Congo show how authorities are faced with a number of serious complications — including a backlash in local communities — as they try to stop an outbreak of an infectious disease that has been declared a global health emergency.The burning of the centers in two towns at the heart of the outbreak shows the anger in a region beset by violence linked to armed rebel groups, the displacement of a large number of people, the failure of local government and international aid cuts that experts say have stripped health facilities in vulnerable communities.“A devastating set of emergencies are converging,” said the Physicians for Human Rights nonprofit.
Here’s a look at the longstanding crises in eastern Congo that have made it home to one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters, and how they are now affecting the response to a rare type of Ebola:The region has a constant threat of violenceEastern Congo has seen violence by dozens of separate rebel groups for years, some of them with links to foreign countries or Islamic State.The Rwanda-backed M23 rebels are in control of parts of the region. While the Congolese government still largely controls the northeastern Ituri Province, which is the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak, that control is tenuous. The Allied Democratic Forces, a Ugandan Islamist group linked to Islamic State, is one of the dominant rebel groups there and responsible for violent attacks against civilian targets.Before the outbreak, Doctors Without Borders said in an assessment of the situation in Ituri that the insecurity had worsened recently, causing doctors and nurses to flee and leaving overwhelmed health facilities and “catastrophic” conditions in some parts.Nearly a million people are displacedin IturiNearly 1 million people in Ituri have been displaced from their homes by conflict, according to the United Nations humanitarian office.That means this Ebola outbreak is “unfolding in communities already facing insecurity, displacement and fragile health care systems,” said Gabriela Arenas, Regional Operations Coordinator at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
