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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Ebola aid workers attacked near village

Nine missing after assault by locals

A charity worker from the GOAL Ireland humanitarian agency educates children on how to prevent and identify the Ebola virus in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on Thursday. (Associated Press)
Robyn Dixon Los Angeles Times

JOHANNESBURG – When Guinean government officials visited the village of Womme in the country’s southeast, they planned to educate people about Ebola and show people how to avoid it – in a region where many still believe the virus doesn’t exist.

But it all went disastrously wrong.

Members of the local population responded furiously, pelting the delegation with stones and beating them with clubs, according to Guinean radio. The delegation, which included doctors and journalists, fled into the bush after the attack on Tuesday. Radio reports said a local politician, two journalists and others hadn’t been heard from since they fled the attack.

Nine people are missing, according to Guinean government. Six members of the delegation were killed, according to local media, but government officials cannot confirm the report.

Twenty-one people were injured as youths attacked, stoning six cars, in an incident that underscores the challenges for local and international teams fighting Ebola in West Africa.

Since Ebola surfaced in this region of Guinea in February, medical agencies have experienced resistance from some members of the population. Doctors Without Borders, the main agency working in West Africa to stem Ebola, said there were at least 10 villages where it couldn’t work because of hostility from local people.

The World Health Organization announced Thursday that 2,622 people had died in West Africa, mainly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, out of more than 5,300 reported cases.

One reason the outbreak spread out of control in West Africa was terror of an incurable disease that kills more than half those infected and suspicion of outsiders who came to bring Ebola patients to hospitals. There was also alarm at warnings they should abandon long, deeply held and important burial rituals, such as washing the bodies of the dead.

Dozens of infected people went underground, evading treatment and spreading the infection. In Monrovia, Liberia, rumors initially spread that Ebola didn’t exist. An intensive government poster campaign gradually changed attitudes there.

In Guinea’s southeast, a search team was sent to track down the delegation after the attack in Womme, but villagers destroyed a bridge leading to the village to prevent police or the military from gaining access, according to national radio.