This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

World Health Organization fears ‘perfect storm’ could spread Ebola rapidly in DR Congo


A makeshift site for internally displace people in North Kivu province of DRC (UNHCR)

The latest outbreak of Ebola in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was identified on August 1 in North Kivu province of DRC, near the borders with Rwanda and Uganda. Since then, Ebola has been spreading fairly rapidly. As of Tuesday, there are 119 confirmed cases, and 69 confirmed deaths from Ebola.

This outbreak has already become the seventh largest Ebola outbreak in history.

As we reported a month ago ( “25-Aug-18 World View — In dreaded scenario, Ebola spreads to densely populated war zone in Congo”), Dr. Peter Salama of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that WHO was extremely concerned because the disease was already spreading and had reached an “area of very high insecurity” because it was in densely populated tribal war zone.

Now Salama’s level of concern appears to have grown considerably. At a news conference on Tuesday he said:

We are now extremely concerned that several factors may be coming together over the next weeks and months to create a potential perfect storm: A perfect storm of active conflict, limiting our ability to access civilians, distress by segments of the community, already traumatized by decades of conflict and of murder.

Salama is particularly concerned about attacks on ordinary civilians and on WHO personnel in and around the territory of Beni, which is the base of WHO’s operation. “We’ve seen attacks now on August 24, September 3, 9, 11, 16, 21 and most recently and most dramatically September 22 in the city itself of Beni. The ADF in particular has enormous capabilities. They’ve been able to overrun entire FARDC-bases in and around Beni, they’ve been able to ambush (UN) forces.” United Nations and Times Live (South Africa) and Reuters and AFP

Violence escalates in North Kivu, DRC, along with Ebola

The militia that Salama named as having “enormous capabilities” is the ADF, which is the Alliance of Democratic Forces, a group of Islamists formed in the late 1990s in western Uganda to fight the government of Uganda. Since then they have taken their mayhem and murder to North Kivu province in DRC and joined with other militia groups, as well as elements of Congo’s own army. The UN was particularly stunned in December of last year, when the ADF attacked UN blue helmet peacekeepers, killing 15 and wounding 54 in one evening.

The fighting has been escalating in all six territories of North Kivu according to the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR. Thousands of civilians have fled their burned-out villages, bringing reports of brutal attacks. It is estimated that more than a million people are displaced in North Kivu. An estimated half a million people have been forced from their homes this year alone.

The WHO’s Dr. Salama mentioned a “perfect storm” of multiple risks. One of those risks is attacks by the ADP and other armed militias. A second risk is that politicians are attempting to exploit the situation, as elections are scheduled for December.

A third risk is “pockets of reluctance, refusal and resistance” by civilians contacted by WHO workers. Many of the new cases of Ebola are being generated by people who are refusing to accept an Ebola vaccination. On Monday, 80 percent of Ebola contacts — people at risk of developing the disease and so requiring monitoring — and three suspected cases in and around Beni could not be reached for disease monitoring. This kind of contact is the only way to stop the further spread of Ebola. If WHO workers can perform vaccinations or contact tracing, and cannot isolate people who have already contracted the disease, there is nothing to stop it from spreading rapidly.

Salama says that neighboring Uganda is now facing an “imminent threat” and social media posts were conflating Ebola with criticism of the DRC government and the United Nations and “a range of conspiracy theories,” which could put health workers at risk.

WHO currently has no plans to evacuate its health workers, but that could change if the danger to them increases. “If WHO and its partners had to leave North Kivu … we would have grave concerns that this outbreak would not be able to be well controlled in the coming weeks or months.” UNHCR and WHO Situation Reports for DRC

Related Articles:

KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, North Kivu, Beni, Ebola, Rwanda, Uganda, World Health Organization, WHO, Peter Salama, Alliance of Democratic Forces, ADP
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