Dozens at an Ebola treatment center in northeast Congo strike over unpaid salaries and bonuses

RWAMPARA, Congo (AP) — Dozens of people working at an Ebola virus treatment center in northeast Congo went on strike Monday over unpaid salaries and bonuses.

Congo has been battling since May a new wave of the virus, named by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention last week as the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak ever recorded on the continent.

The striking staff at Rwampara General Hospital in Ituri province includes epidemiologists, case investigators, drivers and gravediggers who say they have not been paid by the Congolese authorities. The hospital was shuttered by protesting staff, who blocked the road leading to the medical facility.

Some of the center’s health workers and those working on the ground began striking last week, accusing authorities of failing to pay their wages since the outbreak began.

“We don’t know how it is possible to not have been paid for two months,” Bahati Claude, a health worker at the center, which is the largest in the Rwampara health zone, told The Associated Press. “We don’t want to give up the job.”

The Congolese authorities declared a new Ebola outbreak on May 15, after the disease had been transmitting for weeks without official detection, according to the World Health Organization. The latest outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which has no approved vaccine or treatment.

During a visit to Ituri last week, the Congolese health minister, Roger Kamba, said the government is verifying a list of those working to control the outbreak, as some unrelated names have been added to the payroll.

“We must ensure that these payments reach the right people,” Kamba said. “We have faced a few challenges, notably changes to the lists, which have led to complaints from people saying they are not being paid even though they are working. We have the means to sort this out.”

There are 1,926 confirmed cases so far in the country, including 702 deaths, according to Congolese authorities.

Meanwhile, the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted Monday on X that a second U.S. citizen, a humanitarian worker in eastern Congo who had contracted Ebola, was transferred to Germany. The first American to test positive for the virus was a doctor working in Congo during the early weeks of the outbreak.

Prosper Heri Ngorora, The Associated Press