Safety fears limit Ebola response in Congo, with more than 12 attacks recorded - AP News

Congolese authorities reported at least a dozen attacks on health facilities and workers during the country's Ebola outbreak, with safety fears increasingly restricting the response in the hardest-hit Ituri province.
The outbreak, declared the fastest-growing on record, has produced 2,181 cases and 864 deaths, and is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a less common strain for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment.
Many attacks have come from angry mobs storming treatment centers or targeting field response teams, according to incident manager Pierre Akilimali, speaking at a briefing in Bunia.
The violence extends beyond healthcare teams to burial workers, with Dr. Adelard Lufongola noting that response members have been held captive in some health zones and that safe burial teams face ongoing threats in cemeteries and communities.
Restrictions on traditional funerals, in which relatives wash and prepare bodies, have angered residents, contributing to the hostility, while many frontline workers in Ituri have gone on strike over unpaid salaries.
Ituri accounts for around 90% of all cases, and health and aid workers have recently been seen leaving remote hot-spot communities for Bunia, as U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said humanitarian actors are deeply concerned by escalating violence.