Ebola tensions rise as treatment centre torched in DR Congo’s Ituri

Key points

• Residents in a town at the centre of an Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have set fire to a treatment facility after being prevented from taking the body of a local man, underscoring deep mistrust and anger around the response to the virus.
• The attack took place on Thursday in Rwampara, in Ituri province, where health workers have been struggling to contain the disease in an area with few medical facilities and where many people are displaced by conflict.
• Witnesses said a group of young men stormed the centre after authorities refused to release the body of a friend who was believed to have died from Ebola.
• The group then set fire to parts of the facility.
• “The police intervened to try to calm the situation, but unfortunately they were unsuccessful,” Alexis Burata, a local student who said he was nearby at the time, told...