The senior WHO official’s comments follow a series of attacks, including one that killed at least 21 civilians on Saturday in the city of Beni, where WHO’s Ebola response teams are based.
Several factors may come together over the next few weeks or months to create a potential perfect storm: Dr. Peter Salama, WHO
“We have seen attacks on August 24, September 3, 9, 11, 16, 21 and, most recently and most dramatically, on September 22 in the city of Beni itself,” he said. He said Beni was the agency’s base during “the entire operation.”
Aside from the worrying attacks on civilians, Dr. Salama expressed concern that, following the latest attack, outraged communities had declared Beni a “ville morte” so that mourners could grieve, effectively suspending UN operations.
“We heard this morning that that ‘ville morte’, which was yesterday, has been extended until Friday of this week,” he said, “which basically means for the UN family, including the WHO, a blockade in Beni. Our operations are effectively suspended.”
This meant that on Monday WHO staff were only able to reach 20 per cent of the contacts they wanted, in and around Beni, Dr Salama said.
Butembo could also declare a “ville morte” in the coming days in solidarity with the people of Beni, he said, which could increase the chances of the situation deteriorating rapidly.
“If we see unsafe burials that cannot be cared for and symptomatic people that cannot be accessed, we can see this situation deteriorating very quickly,” Dr. Salama said.
In addition to many people’s fear of Ebola, the senior WHO official explained that the situation was being further complicated by local politicians who were “exploiting and manipulating” them ahead of the upcoming elections.
The social media reaction to the outbreak also added to a “series of conspiracy theories,” Dr. Salama said, adding that people have been “actively fleeing” health workers, even in places where there have been large numbers of cases in recent weeks.
In the nearly two months since the outbreak was declared, there have been 150 confirmed and probable cases of the disease, and 100 people have died, as of September 23. Ebola symptoms include high fever and vomiting, which makes it difficult to treat because it resembles many other diseases in their early stages.
Speaking to reporters at the UN in Geneva, Dr Salama said the international response to the major public health threat had been excellent and that donors had responded “very quickly and generously” to this latest outbreak, which is the tenth in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since the 1970s.
This progress risks being undone by rising violence in the Kivus region, which is home to more than 100 armed groups, he said, before noting that neighboring countries now also face a higher risk of the disease spreading.
“There are no plans for WHO or UN staff to leave”
“We ask the international community to continue funding the response,” he said, “both in North Kivu and also, and this is increasingly important, in the neighboring provinces of Kivu and Ituri, and in neighboring countries.”
One of the armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that poses a threat to civilians and the international response to Ebola, the ADF (Allied Democratic Forces), has sufficient military capacity to ambush blue helmets of the UN Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) and government forces, the FARDC.
“The ADF in particular has enormous capabilities,” Dr Salama said. “They have been able to invade entire FARDC bases in and around Beni, they have been able to ambush (UN) forces.”
Asked whether the growing violence could force the WHO to leave the area, Dr Salama said there were “no plans” to do so and that only a “very significant presence” from the UN and its partners could stop the disease.
“There are no plans for WHO or UN staff to leave,” he added. “You know that the UN philosophy is to stay and comply in all circumstances, unless we become direct targets of violence.”
“I don’t think… we can stop Ebola without a very significant presence from the UN and its partners, even though the Ministry of Health has provided great leadership and is doing an extremely good job in this response,” he added.