DRC ruling party official beaten to death after Ebola awareness radio appearance

A senior member of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s ruling party was beaten to death on Sunday after appearing on a radio programme to raise awareness about the Ebola outbreak, a party representative has said.

Marie-Celestin Karondwa, the acting president of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) party’s federal executive committee in Butembo, a new hotspot for the outbreak, was attacked after taking part in a radio show during which he promoted prevention measures for the disease, the UDPS federation in the city said in a statement, Reuters reported.

The party said the attackers beat Karondwa, stole his belongings and set his house on fire, and that he later died from his injuries.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack, how many people were involved or what motivated it, but the party said Karondwa was “an innocent victim for having defended the party’s position on the existence of the Ebola virus disease … and the threat it poses to the population.”

Karondwa’s death comes after a series of attacks on healthcare workers and treatment centres that experts say are fuelled by rumours and misinformation about the disease and distrust of health responders.

The incidents have included violence, riots and property damage and the disruption of essential services. On Saturday, armed men attacked a hand-washing checkpoint in the nearby Beni Territory, killing at least one person and wounding several others, a local civil society group reported.

First identified in 1976 in what is now the DRC, Ebola is a highly contagious and often fatal viral disease that affects humans and non-human primates. It spreads through body fluids or contaminated materials and causes organ damage, blood vessel impairment and sometimes severe internal and external bleeding.

The current outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which has no approved treatment or vaccine. It was first announced on 15 May and has infected 8,067 people and killed 3,901 according to data from the DRC’s health ministry.

Cases of the disease have been confirmed in seven provinces.

The outbreak is the largest and deadliest in the DRC’s history and second only globally to the 2014-2016 outbreak in West Africa, which infected more than 28,600 people and killed more than 11,000.

Data from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention shows the current outbreak has outpaced the West African one.

Last month, the World Health Organization warned that it is on track to surpass the West Africa outbreak. Experts say the spread of the disease has been intensified by several factors, including conflict, aid cuts and the attacks on healthcare workers and treatment centres.

Reuters contributed to this report