JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Congo's health ministry says health teams in the latest Ebola outbreak are attacked about three or four times a week by wary residents, a level of violence unseen in the country's nine previous outbreaks of the deadly virus.
The coordinator of the outbreak response, Dr. Ndjoloko Tambwe Bathe, spoke to reporters on Monday after a weekend marked by deadly rebel attacks and violent protests.
Two health workers were killed by rebels in the first such deaths since the outbreak was declared on Aug. 1. The next day, residents of Beni protested another rebel attack that killed 15 civilians, pelting aid groups' vehicles with stones.
The unrest suspended Ebola containment efforts in the outbreak's epicenter. The spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general says Antonio Guterres is "outraged" by the ongoing rebel violence.
