At least 30 killed in eastern Congo attack as Ebola patients flee

At least 30 civilians were killed in an overnight attack in Cantine-Aloya, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s North Kivu province, the UN said on 6 November, citing local sources.

Justin Paluku, the head of a local civil society group, blamed the attack on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an armed group linked to Islamic State. He told the Associated Press that 33 bodies had been counted in Cantine and more than 50 houses had been set on fire.

Congolese news outlet DRC Actu also reported 33 deaths, but said the provisional total comprised 24 in Cantine and nine in Kima. The relationship between the local counts is unclear; they cannot be added together.

UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said homes had been burnt and a health centre destroyed, with several patients killed. The UN did not identify the centre or say whether those deaths were included in its reported toll.

Christian Kakule Vulembera, medical director of Kelekele Hospital in Cantine, told AP that 180 hospital patients had fled during the attack. They included people with suspected Ebola and one person with a confirmed case. He said high-risk contacts and others under observation had also fled, and warned that people with possible infections could transmit the virus in the community.

Dujarric said insecurity had disrupted the Ebola response, with people who had been in contact with patients reportedly fleeing an observation centre and response teams suspending operations in the area. He said that made it harder to track potential infections and contain the outbreak.