Health workers battling Congo’s Ebola outbreak have gone on strike over unpaid wages, more than a week after first warning authorities they would — a warning that has now proven true as the crisis deepens.
Dozens of staff at Rwampara General Hospital in Ituri province, including epidemiologists, case investigators and gravediggers, walked off the job Monday, shuttering the facility and blocking its access road. One worker told AP staff hadn’t been paid in two months despite continuing to work.
The strike coincides with grim new figures: confirmed cases have risen to 1,926, with 702 deaths, up sharply from under 1,710 cases just days earlier. The virus has now spread to two more provinces, Haut-Uele and Tshopo, bringing the total to five, and Africa’s CDC has labelled it the continent’s fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record.
Health Minister Roger Kamba said the government is correcting payroll list errors that wrongly excluded some workers. Separately, a second American aid worker infected with the virus has been transferred to a specialist unit in Frankfurt, Germany, for treatment.
Also read: Electricity subsidy hits N358bn despite persistent power outages
Leave feedback about this
You must be logged in to post a comment.