Battle against Ebola being lost amid militarised response, medical charity says
MSF suspended aid activities last week after two facilities were set on fire in the DRC
By Tom Miles Geneva — The battle against Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is failing because ordinary people do not trust health workers and an overly militarised response is alienating patients and families, the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said on Thursday. Last week, MSF suspended medical activities at the focal point of the epidemic after two of its facilities were torched by unidentified assailants. MSF’s international president Joanne Liu said the outbreak, which has killed 569 people, would not be beaten unless the community trusted the authorities and were treated humanely. “The existing atmosphere can only be described as toxic,” Liu told reporters in Geneva. Ebola responders were increasingly seen as the enemy, with more than 30 attacks and incidents against the Ebola response in the past month alone, she said. The epidemic is in a region of the DRC that is prey to armed groups and violence where officials are prone to see threats through a...
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