Mob Kills Officials In Guinue Due To Fear Of Ebola

The bodies of eight officials and

journalists who went to a remote

village in Guinea to dispel rumors

about the deadly Ebola outbreak

gripping the region were discovered

after a rock-hurling mob attacked the

delegation, claiming that it had come

to spread the illness, a government

spokesman said Thursday.

The delegation had left for the village

on Tuesday for what was supposed to

be a community event to raise

awareness about the Ebola virus, said

the spokesman, Albert Camara

Damantang. When the angry crowd

descended on them, he said, several

officials managed to escape and alert

their colleagues in Conakry, Guinea’s

capital, who sent out a search party.

“They went on a mission to try to

sensitize the local population about

Ebola, but unfortunately they were

met with hostility by people throwing

rocks,” Mr. Damantang said.

In the delegation was a sub-prefect, a

regional health director and a pastor

“who came to offer solace, as well as

several journalists from communal

radio stations,” Mr. Damantang said.

“Among the only survivors we found

of those who tried to hide in the bush

was the 5-year-old son of the sub-

prefect, who was left hiding in the

wild.”

The Ebola epidemic has already killed

more than 2,600 people in Guinea,

Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Governments have scrambled to figure

out a way to contain it, but beyond

their own limited resources, collapsing

health systems and inexperience with

the disease, they have faced another

dangerous obstacle: distrust among

the local population.

In Guinea, workers and officials,

blamed by panicked populations for

spreading the virus, have been

threatened with knives, stones and

machetes.

In Liberia, some politicians have

publicly expressed doubts about the

extent of the outbreak, and even

accused the administration of

exaggerating it to collect money from

international donors.

Scores of health workers across the

region have died trying to fight the

disease, often in hospitals and clinics

that lack basic supplies. But the killing

of government officials, journalists

and community leaders trying to curb

the spread of the disease represents a

dangerous new chapter in the efforts

to contain the epidemic.