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DRCONGO-EPIDEMIC-HEALTH-EBOLA
Congolese anti-Ebola fighter killed at home: army
BUNIA, DR Congo, Nov 3, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A Congolese radio host involved
in the fight against Ebola has been killed at his home in the northeast Ituri
region of Democratic Republic of Congo, the army said Sunday.
The unidentified attackers got into his home at Lewebma, killed him,
wounded his wife and burned down their house, General Robert Yav told AFP,
speaking from Mamabasa, in Ituri.
Professor Steve Ahuka, national coordinator of the fight against Ebola
confirmed that a local worker involved in the fight against Ebola in Lwemba
had been killed.
A journalist at Radio Lwemba, the local radio station where he worked,
confirmed the details.
“Our colleague Papy Mumbere Mahamba has been killed at his home by unknown
attackers…,” who had stabbed him to death, Jacques Kamwina told AFP.
“He was coming home from the radio where he had done a show on the fight
against Ebola,” he added.
DR Congo declared an Ebola epidemic in August 2018 in the eastern
provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri, that border Uganda, Rwanda and
Burundi. The outbreak has so far killed 2,185 people, according to the latest
official figures.
Containment efforts have been hindered by the conflict in eastern DRCongo,
as well as attacks on health workers tackling Ebola in a population where
mistrust of outsiders and superstition is rife.
It is the DRC’s 10th Ebola epidemic, and the deadliest outbreak since a
West Africa outbreak in 2014-2016 that claimed more than 11,300 lives.
BSS/AFP/BZC/1945HRS