According to Reuters reports, a number of Ebola aid workers have been murdered in a remote Guinean village. The numbers are in flux, with one source reporting eight killed, and thrown into the village latrine. The Prime Minister of Guinea, Saïd Fofana, said that the bodies of seven of nine missing aid workers have been found.
The killings took place in southeastern Guinea, a remote area near the village where Ebola was first found in March, 2014. Prime Minister Fofana reported that the aid mission included “local administrators, two medical officers, a preacher and three accompanying journalists.” They were reportedly attacked by a large crowd, throwing stones, from the village of Wome.
These deaths are believed to be the first resulting from resistance to international efforts to curb the Ebola outbreak in the region. Other aid teams have been forced to turn back by crowds in several locations, and a treatment center in Monrovia, Liberia was attacked and looted.
The reason for the killings is unclear, but correspondents say many people in the region distrust health officials and have refused to co-operate with authorities, fearing that a diagnosis means certain death. Last month, riots erupted in the area of Guinea where the health team went missing after rumours that medics who were disinfecting a market were contaminating people.
