DR Congo Ebola health workers protest unpaid wages as deaths surpass 1,800

Dozens of Congolese health workers at the epicentre of an Ebola outbreak have gone on strike to demand payment of their wages, as aid workers warn the disease is still spreading at an alarming rate.

Health workers in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province – which accounts for nearly 90 percent of Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – are the latest group to walk off their jobs since protests over pay began weeks ago in the country.

Protesting at the governor’s office in the city on Thursday, they said they have not received wages and bonuses since the outbreak was declared in mid-May.

“With this way of managing things, Ebola will not end in this province,” Edouige Makosi, one of the protesters, told The Associated Press news agency. “We ask the authorities to get involved at all levels so that a solution is found quickly.”

Officials have in the past blamed logistical issues for the payment delays. Congolese authorities did not immediately comment on the claims.

Poor welfare for front-line workers has been a key source of concern in the outbreak spreading in one of DRC’s most remote and vulnerable areas, ravaged by conflict between armed groups. Several health workers and facilities have been attacked by rebels and angry crowds.

The walkouts took place as confirmed cases in the outbreak reached 3,973, including 1,801 deaths, according to the latest government data published on Thursday.

It is the second-largest Ebola outbreak on record, behind the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak that saw more than 28,000 cases, including an excess of 11,000 deaths.

Government data shows 674 patients are currently in isolation, most of them in Ituri. At least 75 percent of contacts were being traced after their exposure to patients, the data showed.

Officials expressed concern that 60-70 percent of the new cases were coming from outside those contacts and were mostly from remote localities where rebel conflict and mining-related movements limit access.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged authorities to prioritise care and support for the responders during a visit to the DRC on Wednesday.

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, said this week that the outbreak is still “spreading at an alarming and unprecedented rate” and that the response, which has been expanding with more steps, “is still not reaching communities quickly enough to break transmission chains”.

“Immediate action is needed,” Philippa Boulle, deputy medical director for MSF, said in a statement on Wednesday. “Every day lost allows the virus to stay one step ahead and more lives to be needlessly lost.”