Protesters have stormed an Ebola treatment centre in the Democratic Republic of Congo to retrieve the body of a relative, according to local media reports.
Footage circulating online appeared to show parts of Rwampara Hospital engulfed in flames, with plumes of smoke rising above the facility. Gunshots can be heard in the background.
“Angry protesters are setting fire to the tents housing Ebola patients because they want to forcibly retrieve the bodies,” said one man, his face mask pulled below his mouth.
Health authorities oversee the burials of suspected victims in line with strict infection protocols, but this often brings them into conflict with grieving families who want to perform traditional burial rites for their loved ones.
Similar incidents have been a feature of previous Ebola outbreaks, particularly families digging up the bodies of deceased relatives for re-burial – an extremely dangerous act because corpses remain highly contagious for up to a week after death.
In 2022, a cluster of Ebola cases in Uganda was traced back to a family who exhumed their relative at night, undoing the work of a safe burial team in order to give the deceased man a funeral. Within days, at least 23 of the mourners had contracted Ebola and three were dead.
The unrest in Rwampara reportedly erupted on Thursday after the death of a young man suspected of having Ebola at the hospital, which is located around 7.5 miles from Bunia, the capital of the conflict-wracked eastern Ituri province.