The eastern Democratic Republic of Congo province most affected by the country's Ebola outbreak banned funeral wakes on Friday, a day after residents clashed with police while trying to recover the body of a victim.
The incident in Ituri province's Rwampara town recalled the hundreds of attacks on health facilities during eastern DRC's 2018-2020 outbreak and underscored the difficulty of imposing strict disease-control practices that conflict with local customs.
The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo strain a public health emergency of international concern. The WHO says late detection, the absence of a vaccine or virus-specific therapeutics, widespread armed violence and high mobility among the population make Congo vulnerable.
Nearly 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths have been recorded in eastern DRC, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday. Two cases have also been confirmed in neighbouring Uganda.
Security challenges hinder response
"These numbers are changing as surveillance efforts and laboratory testing is improving, but violence and insecurity are impeding the response," Tedros said. On Friday, the WHO raised its risk assessment for the outbreak in Congo to "very high" from "high," while maintaining its earlier assessment that there was a high risk at the regional level and low risk at the global level.
One of the armed groups, the Rwanda-backed M23, has been running large swathes of territory it seized last year, including cities where Ebola cases have been detected. On Friday, an M23-appointed governor of North Kivu suspended public transport between Goma, the rebel headquarters, and Butembo, a major town to the north near Ituri province.
New restrictions imposed
In an official order on Friday, Ituri's provincial government said burials must now be conducted only by specialized teams and prohibited the transport of dead bodies by non-medical vehicles. It also limited public gatherings to 50 people and suspended the local football league.
