By Caitlin Danaher, Larry Madowo, Niamh Kennedy

(CNN) — Protesters caused a blaze at a health facility treating Ebola patients in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Thursday, burning down two hospital tents, a local politician told CNN.

Tensions flared Thursday when the relatives of a young man who died of Ebola tried to take his body “by force” from the Rwampara Hospital, according to Luc Mambele, vice president of Congolese political party A2RC.

A lethal Ebola strain has ripped through local communities in the area, triggering a global health emergency. Tests show that the Bundibugyo strain — which has no specific treatment or vaccine — is behind the outbreak.

After health authorities refused access to the young man’s body, family members responded by lobbing projectiles at the hospital tents, causing a fire to break out, the local official said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday that at least 177 deaths are thought to be linked to the outbreak in the DRC, with nearly 750 cases suspected, warning that violence was hampering the response.

“The Ebola situation in the DRC is deeply worrisome,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an update on social media, cautioning that officials “know the epidemic in the DRC is much larger” than the seven deaths that have been confirmed by a laboratory.

“These numbers are changing as surveillance efforts and laboratory testing is improving, but violence and insecurity are impeding the response,” Tedros added.

Six patients were receiving treatment in the medical tents from the Alliance for International Medical Action at the time of the attack and are now being cared for in the hospital, ALIMA said in a statement.

The medical humanitarian organization warned against the spread of “incorrect or unconfirmed information circulating on social media and the internet,” which is likely to fuel fear, misinformation and mistrust toward health facilities.

In a video shared with CNN, Mambele describes being locked down at the hospital as police fire warning shots to disperse protesters from the burning tents.

Video from Reuters news agency showed a large blaze engulfing the medical tents, with their scorched frames standing over blackened hospital beds in the aftermath of the attack.

Officers from the national police force who were deployed to the scene worked swiftly to restore order, Mambele told CNN.

A spokesperson for the DRC, Patrick Muyaya, condemned the attack, telling CNN that the locals responded by doing “exactly what they shouldn’t do.”

Mambele said the incident exemplified the dangers of rising misinformation within the community. Many residents in Ituri province believe that “Ebola is a lie,” he told CNN.

“The population is not sufficiently informed or made aware of what is happening. To members of the most remote communities, Ebola is a White man’s invention; it doesn’t exist,” Mambele remarked.

The WHO has officially declared the outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern,” but global risks remain low.

The first suspected case involved a healthcare worker whose symptoms began on April 24 and who later died at a medical facility in Bunia, WHO reported. By May 5, the organization was notified of an “unidentified illness” associated with high mortality rates in the province. After an inquiry by a “rapid response team” on May 13, the outbreak was identified as the Bundibugyo virus on May 15.

The CDC found out about the outbreak on Thursday, May 14, a CDC expert source who is working on the Ebola response told CNN. The first meetings about the outbreak were on Friday, the CDC source said.

One American doctor who was working in the DRC has tested positive for the virus and is now being treated at a specialist hospital in Berlin.

On Friday, the Charité hospital said he “shows clear symptoms and is severely weakened but is not currently critically ill and does not require intensive care measures or organ support.”

The patient has been isolated in a specialized high-security unit since May 20, the hospital said in a statement. His wife and four children were admitted to the same hospital on May 21 and are being quarantined separately, but can communicate with him through an intercom and see him through a glass partition, it said.

Initial PCR tests detected no Ebola virus infection and they are asymptomatic, but are classified as high-risk contacts, the hospital said.

The virus has also reached neighboring Uganda, where health officials confirmed two laboratory-verified cases, including one death, in the capital Kampala. The Ugandan Health Ministry has since said the female patient returned two negative tests for Ebola and is “currently out of danger.”

Public transport, flights and ferries between Uganda and the DRC have been suspended, and enhanced border security patrols are in place, according to the Health Ministry.

CNN’s Nimi Princewill, Lauren Kent and Claudia Otto contributed reporting.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.