Young people in Beni, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, have launched a public awareness campaign to strengthen community support for efforts to contain a deadly Ebola outbreak amid growing attacks on health workers and response teams.
The youths on Friday rode bicycles and marched through the city as part of a caravan organised with support from Congolese non-governmental organisations and the World Health Organization (WHO).
The initiative followed a series of attacks targeting Ebola response teams in Beni and neighbouring health zones.
Earlier this week, burial teams were attacked in Beni, leaving several workers injured, while treatment centres were reportedly set ablaze in Ebola hotspots including Mongbwalu and Rwampara.
Beni, which was at the centre of the 2018–2020 Ebola epidemic, has once again emerged as a major hotspot in the current outbreak.
The outbreak has rapidly escalated, recently surpassing the 2018 epidemic to become the second-deadliest Ebola outbreak on record. Health authorities have warned that it could become the largest in history, with the virus spreading several times faster than during the 2014 West Africa outbreak.
Organisers said the violence against response workers was closely linked to the wider insecurity affecting the region.
“ At the same time that the Ebola virus disease showed up, it has coincided with the sudden appearance of insecurity in the city of Beni. That’s why you’ll see that tensions are high. The population does not understand,” said Paulin Livimba, vice president of the Beni Urban Youth Council.
Livimba appealed to the government to intensify its intervention, saying that although tens of millions of dollars had been released to support the response, the impact had yet to be felt by communities on the ground.
Sylvie Kalumbi, a leader of the One Girl One organisation, said the caravan was designed to counter hostility towards health workers and encourage young people to support the response.
“When response teams arrive to do their work, there are young people who attack them,” she said.
She added that the campaign was intended to demonstrate to young people that Ebola was real and that collective action was needed to bring the outbreak under control.
Response teams operating in Ituri and North Kivu provinces have faced widespread mistrust, with rumours and misinformation compounding fears in communities already affected by violence involving multiple armed groups.
Philemon Kambale, who works in community engagement for Congo’s Health Ministry, said misinformation had contributed significantly to the resistance against health workers.
“There have been a lot of rumors, there is a lot of misinformation. So all that was part of why there has been mistrust,” Kambale said.
He stressed that community participation, particularly among young people, would be crucial to ending the epidemic.
“It is the commitment of the community, of the youth, of the population that will allow us to end this epidemic,” he said.
