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   From: bksperman@outlook.com   
      
   At least four Ebola response workers are dead and six others   
   injured after a pair of attacks overnight against health   
   facilities in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A World Health   
   Organization official on Thursday described the killings as   
   "unmistakably a directed attack at the [Ebola] response."   
      
   The dead include a vaccinator and two drivers stationed at   
   Biakato Mines — an Ebola response camp used by WHO, government   
   officials, UNICEF and other aid agencies — while a police   
   officer died in the attack on a health coordination office in   
   the small town of Mangina. No WHO staff died; one was among the   
   injured.   
      
   "Though no WHO staff were killed, our Ministry of Health and   
   partner colleagues are all members of the same family. We've   
   been in the trenches together to stop this outbreak for a year   
   and a half," Mike Ryan, WHO's executive director for health   
   emergencies, said on a call with journalists Thursday. "We   
   grieve for them as we would for one our own. We are heartbroken   
   that they died as they worked to save others."   
      
   Ryan said both Congo and the United Nations are opening   
   investigations, noting that as of yet, "there's no confirmation   
   of the actual perpetrators or the reason for the attack — we can   
   only make assumptions about who it might have been, given the   
   active groups in the area."   
      
   This was no isolated spasm of violence.   
      
   Since world health workers descended on the eastern regions of   
   Congo, seeking to stifle an Ebola outbreak declared last year in   
   North Kivu and Ituri provinces, the medics and frontline aid   
   workers have faced more dangers than the usual horrific litany   
   associated with the disease. The volatile regions are largely   
   lawless and contain rich deposits of precious minerals.   
      
   In roughly the past 16 months, world health officials say the   
   Ebola epidemic — now the world's second-largest on record — has   
   left some 2,200 people dead, out of more than 3,300 confirmed   
   cases. But the threats from local militias have proven deadly   
   for the teams trying to combat the disease.   
      
   "There have been 386 attacks, seven deaths and 77 injuries — and   
   this response alone against health care workers and health care   
   infrastructure," Ryan said, adding: "This is by far the   
   deadliest attack so far."   
      
   Earlier this week, WHO pulled a third of its 120 Ebola   
   responders out of Beni, east of Mangina. UNICEF has also pulled   
   most of its workers from the densely populated town. Beni, which   
   has seen the most confirmed cases of any single community where   
   the disease remains active, lately has descended into violent   
   protests from residents angry at U.N. peacekeepers for failing   
   to protect civilians in the area.   
      
   Part of the trouble encountered by peacekeepers rests in the   
   question of who, exactly, is behind these attacks on residents   
   and international Ebola responders. According to one estimate,   
   there are more than 130 active armed "self-defense" militias in   
   the area, most known by the umbrella term "Mai Mai." Earlier   
   this year the U.N. accused several of these groups of   
   perpetrating massacres and mass rapes.   
      
   As Ryan pointed out Thursday, the violence has had two major   
   effects: a rampant distrust in the authorities, and a situation   
   so unstable, it is interrupting the attempt to rein in the Ebola   
   outbreak.   
      
   "The tragedy in this is that up until a week ago, essentially 98   
   percent of our cases were in two transmission chains and almost   
   all cases were accounted for, and we were in a position where we   
   were really starting to get on top of this virus" he said. "With   
   the deterioration of security, with that loss of access, we're   
   now beginning again to see a small but worrying increase in   
   cases and maybe losing some of the gains."   
      
   https://www.npr.org/2019/11/28/783582331/it-was-unmistakably-a-   
   directed-attack-4-ebola-workers-killed-in-   
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