As Ebola Spreads, The DRC Struggles To Contain It

As Ebola Spreads, the DRC Struggles to Contain It DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO At the epicenter of the latest Ebola outbreak, doctors despair. At Mongbwalu General Hospital’s Ebola ward, patients young and old languish, and some are already dead. In a nearby ward, medical personnel lie sick and dying, after treating patients without protective gear, which is hard to come by in the town of Mongbwalu in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Relatives come at all hours, bringing food for the sick because there is none at the hospital, or wailing in grief because their loved one has died. No one here has ever dealt with Ebola or even knows how to. Prior outbreaks had passed them by. As a result, local medical personnel couldn’t identify what was killing the people of their town for weeks. Now, the hospital, which finds itself in the middle of a growing crisis, is understaffed, under-resourced and overwhelmed. Alex Bogole, a Congolese doctor in the intensive care department of the hospital, told the New York Times he is angry. The virus had been spreading for months, virtually unimpeded, “and this is the best we can do?” he wondered. He’s referring to the slow response by the government and the world. “They hold meetings and meetings,” he said. “What is the purpose of these meetings? People are dying, people are getting infected, people are in danger. It’s very slow.” The latest outbreak of Ebola was declared in the middle of May. But medical officials believe it’s been spreading for months undetected. Now they worry that it’s going to surpass the death toll of the last major outbreak: From 2014 to 2016, Ebola killed more than 11,000 people out of nearly 29,000 infected in West Africa. It was the largest and deadliest outbreak in history. To date, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has reported 635 confirmed cases and 127 deaths from the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola. Uganda has reported 19 confirmed cases and two deaths. There is no licensed vaccine or specific treatment for this strain. Now, scientists are scrambling to develop vaccines and treatments to stop Bundibugyo from spreading further. The location of this outbreak is making it difficult, however. Mongbwalu is in Ituri province, a volatile region being fought over by armed groups, all competing for access to its gold and other minerals. It is part of the wider conflict zone in eastern Congo, where Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have seized large amounts of territory and are currently fighting government troops. As a result, Mongbwalu attracts people from other areas displaced by the fighting, as well as those seeking work mining gold or selling to those who do. But as people come and go, they could easily spread Ebola, officials say. Meanwhile, traditional burial practices in the Congo and elsewhere often involve family members touching the body of the deceased. But that can transmit the virus, doctors say. Officials have restricted traditional burials but those orders are being defied. As a result, violence has broken out at the hospital and others in the region. In late May, dozens of locals attempted to storm the hospital to reclaim their loved ones’ remains. It was the third attack in a week. It also sent Ebola patients fleeing, potentially spreading the disease. At the same time, some locals believe Ebola is a hoax. One conspiracy theory is that nonprofit workers brought the disease to make money. Another is that the outbreak has been fabricated to frighten the population and gain access to minerals, including gold. “We are looking at a lot of superstition and misinformation around this disease,” Saki Roger, a Congolese neurosurgeon who contracted Ebola during a prior outbreak in 2018 while treating a patient, told the Washington Post. Roger recounted how people with the illness are often rejected by their families. Some infected people also shun the few health facilities that exist in the region. “Instead of coming to healthcare services, (the sick) take alternative solutions with traditional healers or other alternatives, and contribute further to spread the outbreak,” said Abdou Sebushishe, a medical doctor with the International Medical Corps in Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, in an interview with CBS News. Meanwhile, the US has moved to set up a facility in central Kenya for Americans exposed to the virus, setting off outrage across the country. Davji Atellah, a physician from the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union, said the group would not “sit back and watch Kenya be treated as a containment colony.” “If it is too dangerous for America, it is too dangerous for Kenya,” he said. While the government agreed to the proposal, a Kenyan court said no – at least for now. Protests broke out over the issue this month, with demonstrators saying they don’t want Kenya to become a dumping ground for wealthy sick foreigners. Two people have died in the protests. In Nanyuki, where the facility is to be located, locals worry about becoming infected with Ebola, which has not been reported in Kenya. They are also concerned about what Ebola infections could do to their lives, their livelihoods and their children, citing curfews and a disruption of business and education. “What’s shocking is that the Americans don’t want their infected fellow citizens to step into their own country but to come to Kenya, David Mulinge, a souvenir seller, told the Guardian. “That’s like treating us as lesser beings.”

Ethiopia: Conflicts Pull The Country Apart

Ethiopia’s Leader Touts Unity as Conflicts Pull It Apart ETHIOPIA Ethiopia The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention recently sounded the alarm about violence against the ethnic Amhara community in Ethiopia. In an alert, the US-based organization said the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and other groups, including the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), have been systematically raping, displacing and killing the Amhara, who are largely Christian and trace their heritage to the imperial dynasty that ruled the Horn of Africa country from 1270 through the early 1970s. “The killings, the targeting of the youth, the systematic sexual and gender-based violence, the enforced disappearances, and the deliberate destruction of private property showcase a coordinated campaign against the Amhara, intended to destroy their communities and threaten their survival as a people,” it said. And while Abiy and the TPLF have both been accused of targeting the Amhara, they continue to fight each other for control of Tigray, a restive region where TPLF fighters had been in full-scale revolt against the central government before a fragile peace took hold in 2022, one that analysts say is disintegrating. The TPLF ran the country until Abiy took power in 2018. Abiy then won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for ending Ethiopia’s war against Eritrea. In his early years, he won Western plaudits for ushering in political reforms, privatizing state-owned enterprises, spending big on infrastructure, and welcoming foreign investment to stoke an economic boom. IMF Chief Kristalina Georgieva recently hailed Ethiopia’s economic progress, noting one of the highest economic growth rates in Africa. And Abiy has more ambitious plans for the country: While Ethiopia has long been associated with famine, the country is now working on becoming self-sufficient in food production. Abiy’s tenure has stoked controversies, however. Critics say he has consolidated power in ways that have favored his Prosperity Party and fellow Oromo, members of Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, while cracking down on human rights activists, dissidents, journalists and others who criticize his policies. Critics also accuse the prime minister of stoking division at home to expand his power even as his government boasts that Ethiopia is more united than ever. In fact, analysts say Abiy has been at war with other groups within Ethiopia’s borders for years, which is threatening the fragile unity of Ethiopia. For example, the government has been fighting insurgents in Oromia, Amhara – the country’s second-largest region – and the Somali Region. Meanwhile, Tigray is heating up again. The TPLF recently pushed out government-backed regional leader Tadesse Werede and reinstated the prewar regional council. The move was led by TPLF chair Debretsion Gebremichael, who was the region’s leader during the 2020-2022 war between Tigray and the federal government. Now the Ethiopian government accuses Eritrea, which helped the government during that war and committed atrocities in Tigray, of working with the TPLF. Analysts say another war in Tigray is likely: The peace agreement is disintegrating with the TPLF ouster of Tadesse Werede. Eritrea, which felt betrayed by the 2022 peace agreement, has been supporting the Fano rebels in Amhara and other rebel groups in Oromia. As a result, analysts believe another war with Eritrea is brewing, too, especially because of Ethiopia’s renewed demand for access to the Eritrean port of Assab on the Red Sea, 40 miles from the Ethiopian border. Eritrea accuses Ethiopia of wanting to reverse its secession from that country three decades ago. At the same time, Ethiopia has a strained relationship with Egypt over its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and is in growing danger of becoming a new front in Sudan’s civil war. Analysts say Sudan’s rebel Rapid Support Forces (RSF) may have a new base of operations in the Benishangul-Gumuz region of Ethiopia, near the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, on Sudan’s eastern border. The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have accused Ethiopia of hosting, arming and otherwise supporting the RSF. Analysts say Ethiopia’s growing involvement in Sudan’s civil war may push the SAF closer to Eritrea and Eritrean-backed rebels in Ethiopia. Sudan’s government supported the TPLF during the Tigray war. Commentators say that Ethiopia is in a volatile situation of its own making. “Growing friction between Ethiopia and its neighbors has added to the volatile mix as diplomatic disputes threaten to escalate into proxy fights or even open confrontation,” wrote Foreign Affairs. This backdrop is one reason why Africa Center researchers are wondering if parliamentary elections in Ethiopia on June 1 will yield stability or empower the centrifugal forces that threaten to rip the country apart. The prime minister’s Prosperity Party is expected to win easily in elections analysts say are just a formality. While opposition candidates complain of harassment, the Prosperity Party is running uncontested in 64 of the country’s 547 constituencies. No voting will occur in Tigray and parts of Amhara. Abiy will keep his job, say observers. Whether or not he can keep the country together is another matter.