{"id":531195,"date":"2026-07-08T12:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T12:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/531195\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T12:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T12:20:08","slug":"health-workers-in-congo-go-on-strike-over-pay-issues-as-deaths-near-600","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/531195\/","title":{"rendered":"Health workers in Congo go on strike over pay issues as deaths near 600"},"content":{"rendered":"

BUNIA, Congo — The healthcare workers at the epicenter of Congo\u2019s Ebola outbreak are walking off their jobs to protest delays in their payments<\/a>, threatening efforts to slow the outbreak<\/a> that officials said continues to spread faster than the response.<\/p>\n

In Ituri province, the hardest hit among the three provinces in eastern Congo affected by the outbreak<\/a>, some of the health professionals and other front-line workers<\/a> told The Associated Press they\u2019ve not been paid their wages and bonuses since the outbreak was declared on May 15. They also alleged they were working with limited gear, and were being treated unfairly by authorities as well as response teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the Ebola virus disease outbreak was declared, we’ve been demanding payment for our work,\u201d Dr. Biensi Kano, a member of the epidemiological surveillance committee in Ituri\u2019s capital, Bunia, told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

The latest government data shows 1,708 recorded cases, including 580 deaths, and that the first month of this Ebola outbreak was already the worst on record, health authorities said. The strike comes at the start of enrollment for clinical trials for the treatment<\/a> of the Bundibugyo virus that is responsible for this outbreak.<\/p>\n

The World Health Organization representative in Congo, Dr. Anne Ancia, said Tuesday that the virus continues to spread, fueled by population movements and insecurity<\/a>, while some treatment centers are at near-full capacity.<\/p>\n

The non-payment of benefits \u201cexposes us and our families to significant socio-economic difficulties and seriously undermines our living conditions,\u201d said Kano.<\/p>\n

In an official notice to national and provincial authorities over the weekend, front-line workers in Ituri threatened to strike if the wages were not paid in 24 hours. By Tuesday, some had already stopped working although no official strike has been declared.<\/p>\n

The aggrieved front-line workers also include safety and security teams, those that often embark on community outreach as well as those burying patients who died from Ebola.<\/p>\n

Congo\u2019s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the situation. Officials in Ituri, however, said they\u2019ve met with the workers and their concerns are being addressed<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that Bunia airport is closed is hampering the very implementation of the response, particularly certain aspects of the flow of funds. This is one of the reasons that may account for the delay in payment,\u201d Akilimali Pierre, incident manager at Congo\u2019s National Institute of Public Health, told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

Some of the workers organized a protest Monday outside the Rwampara Ebola treatment center. They set tires alight, causing a brief panic in the vicinity before the police intervened to restore order.<\/p>\n

Health workers face other challenges as well, including attacks from angry residents and skepticism about the virus.<\/p>\n

Dr. Ben Bakule, a community investigator, said he narrowly escaped death in late May when a group of angry young men attacked him and his colleagues while they were tracing contacts of a confirmed Ebola case in the village of Tutu, in Djugu territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe spend money on transport to get to work. We thought we\u2019d be rewarded. At the moment, nothing is going right because we\u2019re not being paid. We don\u2019t deserve this sort of treatment,\u201d he told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe might have to give up our jobs. These are risks we\u2019re taking. We risk dying for nothing. This government wants this epidemic to continue,\u201d Bakule added, his voice tinged with frustration.<\/p>\n

When he visited the mining town of Mongbwalu<\/a> \u2014 considered the hot spot for the disease \u2014 last month, Congo\u2019s Minister of Health Roger Kamba assured the response teams that the government was prioritizing their working conditions. <\/p>\n

“All doctors, all nurses and all staff working on the response will be fully supported. We have the money for that,\u201d Kamba said at the time.<\/p>\n

But front-line workers say the reality is different.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are doing everything we can to make the public understand how dangerous this disease is. I came here to save people\u2019s lives, but this is how I am being thanked. We are working day and night without being paid,\u201d said Dr. Ghislain Maneba, an epidemiologist and community investigator in the Rwampara health zone.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the strike by some workers has caused concern among residents in Ituri, where measures to slow the outbreak have resulted in economic hardship.<\/p>\n

Bunia resident Anifa Kito said she fears that response efforts may falter, further complicating daily life. \u201cI would ask the authorities to resolve this situation before things get any worse,\u201d she said, standing in front of her tomato stall.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

AP writer Constant Same Bagalwa in Bunia contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

For more on Africa and development: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/africa-pulse<\/a><\/p>\n

The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUNIA, Congo — The healthcare workers at the epicenter of Congo\u2019s Ebola outbreak are walking off their jobs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[114,1508,82695,122,163,521,85,46,4260,3961,5468,11845,126],"class_list":["post-531195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-business","tag-compensation-and-benefits","tag-ebola-virus","tag-general-news","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-jobs-and-careers","tag-labor","tag-protests-and-demonstrations","tag-strikes","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}