A nurse was killed and another health worker was severely injured on Saturday while responding to an Ebola alert in Bafwasende, a town in Tshopo Province in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Local youths targeted the pair, accusing them of contaminating water sources and spreading the Ebola virus, according to Radio Okapi.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization director-general, disclosed the attack in a post on X on Sunday. He said health workers “must be able to carry out their duties in safety and dignity”.
Dr Mohamed Yakub Janabi, the WHO’s regional director for Africa, said: “Health is NOT a target. Those responding to the Ebola outbreak must be protected. Misinformation and fear must never fuel violence.”
The attack is the latest in a series directed at health workers and Ebola responders in the country. At the start of the outbreak in May, residents set alight two tents at health centres in two separate attacks within one week.
In August, the Red Cross said volunteers had been injured and an ambulance had been set on fire in 11 violent incidents during the first 100 days after the outbreak was declared. Last month, a politician in North Kivu was beaten to death after defending the government’s Ebola response and urging people on a radio programme to follow response measures.
Responders also say residents have held team members captive or threatened them in designated health zones. Authorities say the attacks are obstructing efforts to slow the world’s fastest-growing Ebola outbreak.
The outbreak was declared in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in May 2026 and has become the deadliest Ebola outbreak in the country’s history. As of 24 October, the country had recorded 9,964 confirmed cases, 4,841 deaths and 2,670 recoveries.
More than 4,800 people have died and nearly 10,000 have been infected in DR Congo since the outbreak began in May. It remains active in 66 health zones.
The outbreak has been reported in four countries across eastern, central and western Africa, the widest geographic spread recorded for an Ebola outbreak on the continent. Kenya has recorded nine confirmed cases and two deaths. Nigeria has recorded one confirmed imported case, found in Abuja on 20 October in a woman who had travelled from Uganda.
The outbreak is caused by the relatively rare Bundibugyo species of Ebola. There is still no vaccine or specific treatment, though trials are under way.
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