Dozens of workers at an Ebola treatment facility in northeastern Congo launched a strike Monday, demanding payment for salaries and bonuses they say they have never received.
The work stoppage at Rwampara General Hospital in Ituri province involves a wide range of personnel, including epidemiologists, case investigators, drivers, and gravediggers. All of them say Congolese authorities have failed to compensate them for their work. Striking employees shut down the hospital and blocked the road leading to the entrance.
Some health workers and field staff had actually begun refusing to work as early as last week, blaming government officials for not issuing their pay since the Ebola outbreak was first identified in May.
“We don’t know how it is possible to not have been paid for two months,” said Bahati Claude, a health worker in the Rwampara health zone. “We don’t want to give up the job.”
Congolese authorities officially declared the new Ebola outbreak on May 15, though the World Health Organization noted the disease had already been spreading for weeks before it was formally detected. This particular outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain of the virus, for which no approved vaccine or treatment currently exists.
During a visit to Ituri province last week, Congolese Health Minister Roger Kamba acknowledged the payment problems, saying the government is working to verify the list of workers involved in the outbreak response. He noted that some names unconnected to the effort had been added to the payroll, complicating the distribution of funds.
“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.”
According to Congolese authorities, the outbreak has now produced 1,926 confirmed cases and claimed 702 lives.
In a related development, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced Monday on the social media platform X that a second American citizen — a humanitarian worker in eastern Congo who contracted Ebola — had been transferred to Germany for care. The first U.S. citizen to test positive was a doctor working in Congo during the early weeks of the outbreak.
Last week, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention characterized this outbreak as the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak ever documented on the African continent.
