Arabic version: وفاة سياسي في الكونغو الديمقراطية بعد برنامج إذاعي عن إيبولا

According to The Guardian, Marie-Celestin Karondwa, a senior member of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s ruling party, was beaten to death on Sunday after appearing on a radio programme about the Ebola outbreak. Karondwa was the acting president of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress’s federal executive committee in Butembo, a new hotspot for the disease.

The UDPS federation in Butembo said Karondwa had used the radio show to promote measures intended to prevent Ebola’s spread. The party said attackers beat him, stole his belongings and set his house on fire. He later died from his injuries. It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack, how many people were involved or what motivated it.

The party described Karondwa as an “innocent victim” who had defended its position on the existence of Ebola and the danger it posed to the population. His death followed a series of attacks on healthcare workers and treatment centres, which experts say have been driven by rumours, misinformation and distrust of health responders. On Saturday, armed men attacked a hand-washing checkpoint in nearby Beni territory, killing at least one person and wounding several others, a local civil society group reported.

The outbreak, first announced on 15 May, is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, for which there is no approved treatment or vaccine. DRC health ministry data said it had infected 8,067 people and killed 3,901, with cases confirmed in seven provinces. The outbreak is the largest and deadliest in the DRC’s history and is second globally only to the 2014-16 west Africa outbreak. Experts have cited conflict, aid cuts and attacks on health workers and treatment centres as factors intensifying the disease’s spread.