Ebola: At least 1 dead during clashes related to a safe and dignified burial in Beni/Païda

On social media, particularly the WhatsApp messaging service, photos and videos have been circulating showing a young teenage girl hit by gunfire. Social media users claim that she had just died following shots fired by the Congolese national police, who were suppressing an escalation between officers escorting a safe and dignified burial team from the Ebola response and young people who wanted to handle the body of a person who had died from the Bundibugyo strain virus. These events took place on 24 September at the Katula cemetery in the Rwangoma/Paida neighbourhood in the commune of Beu, according to various posts. 

VokaCheck, the fact-checking desk of the information and communication research centre Factualité Afrique, has verified all these allegations and confirms the incident, including the death of the young teenage girl filmed in the shocking footage.

1. CLASHES CAUSED BY COMMUNITY RESISTANCE 

« Kuko fille amepata masasi ku cimetière Katula/Paida. Police yenye ilikuwa na accompagné équipe ya riposte njo imepiga masasi ovyo ovyo. Kuko groupe yenye ilikuwa na réclamé kuona corps avant enterrement. Fille mwenye ana pâta masasi niwa Cité Belge. Il y a plusieurs blessés » states a post in Swahili shared several times via WhatsApp groups, mostly based in Beni. 

Transcription and English translation of this WhatsApp post

« A police officer belonging to the unit escorting the Ebola response team has just killed this girl by shooting her. We are at the Katula/Paida cemetery. Here is the grave where the confirmed case, around which the incident occurred, was supposed to be buried. »

Speaking to VokaCheck, the management of the provincial civil protection division, whose teams coordinate safe and dignified burial activities during epidemiological periods, confirmed the death of a young teenage girl during the clashes, which it attributes to community resistance. 

« The incident was caused by community resistance against the response teams, as you can see. Investigations are underway to find out more about the overall toll, as well as the real causes that triggered the brawls. »

North Kivu provincial civil protection division to VokaCheck

The World Health Organization (WHO) team deployed in Beni also confirmed the incident to VokaCheck, specifying that the casualty toll was being processed and that a joint team of health and administrative authorities from North Kivu province was investigating the incident. 

2. ALLEGED SHOOTERS DETAINED 

Continuing its verification of the details of this incident, VokaCheck spoke with Senior Police Commissioner Kahumba Lemba Jean-Fabien Sébastien, the urban police commander in the city of Beni. The officer deplored the consequences of this event but specified that the police had arrested the alleged shooters, who must explain the circumstances that led to this tension and the reported damage. 

« The entire unit in the jeep escorting the response teams has been detained. These alleged shooters who caused this damage (death and injuries) must provide full explanations to the police regarding the course of events » he said. 

3. RESPONSE ACCUSED OF MISMANAGEMENT AND INCOMPETENCE IN HANDLING THE HEALTH CRISIS 

A member of the RCCE (risk communication and community engagement) pillar of the government response and a pro-democracy activist based in Beni, Nick Junior Vusindi deems the quality of the health response ineffective in the face of the multiple challenges encountered on the ground. Speaking to VokaCheck and on his Facebook account, the latter denounces the mismanagement and explains that this incident occurred while local teams working to defeat Ebola were threatening to go on strike over several demands.

« Ebola response in North Kivu, a resounding failure of poor response coordination » titles Nick before continuing: “While a team of police officers was accompanying the safe and dignified burial in the Paida neighbourhood in the city of Beni, this escort turned into an altercation between the population affected by Ebola and the escorting police officers, which has just resulted in the loss of a teenage girl's life. As a community actor in Beni, I strongly condemn this despicable act and demand:

• justice for the victim 
• the resignation of the Ebola Incident Manager in North Kivu for managerial incompetence of the response in the affected areas of North Kivu province » he wrote, while calling for a community-led rather than a political response.

4. KATULA CEMETERY AND NOT PAIDA

In the messages circulating on social media regarding the incident, several users state that the incident occurred at the Paida cemetery. However, visual evidence and satellite imagery obtained by VokaCheck demonstrate that the cemetery visible in the images taken during the incident is actually the Katula community cemetery. The Paida cemetery (visible on these satellite images) is located within the Saint Gustave Catholic Parish of Beni Païda in the Ruwenzori commune, while the Katula cemetery is managed by the Rwangoma neighbourhood and is located in the Beu commune (approximate location geolocated by the Factualité Afrique teams).