Skip to content

All the news that matters, in plain English.

Latest
  1. Defending champion Luke Littler stunned by Luke Woodhouse in World Grand Prix opener
  2. Tata Trusts propose merging two firms into Tata Sons to shed NBFC tag and stay private
  3. Trump denies ever discussing US weapons sales to China, contradicting his own ambassador
  4. Hurricane Polo re-strengthens to Category 5, forecast to make landfall in Baja California Sur on Monday
  5. India delivers right of reply to Shehbaz Sharif's UNGA speech — warns "terrorism by Pakistan will have consequences"
  6. Liverpool reappoint Julian Ward as sporting director after Hughes exits for Al-Hilal
  7. Magnitude 6.6 earthquake strikes Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia; no tsunami threat
  8. NYPD arrests two men seen emerging from New York City manhole near Upper East Side hotel

World

DR Congo politician beaten to death after urging Ebola prevention on radio, party says

Marie-Celestin Karondwa, a senior figure in Congo's ruling UDPS party, was attacked by neighbours and died after appearing on a radio programme to promote Ebola prevention measures in Butembo, the party said.

By Sarah Whitfield · · 2 min read

A senior member of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s ruling party was beaten to death after taking part in a radio programme to raise awareness about the Ebola outbreak, a party representative said on Monday, according to Reuters.

Marie-Celestin Karondwa, acting president of the UDPS party’s federal executive committee in Butembo and a party spokesperson, was attacked by residents of his neighbourhood on Sunday after appearing on a radio show on which he promoted Ebola prevention measures, the UDPS federation in Butembo said in a statement.

The party said the attackers beat him, looted his belongings and set his house on fire. It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack, how many people were involved or what motivated it. The party said Karondwa was “an innocent victim for having defended the party’s position on the existence of the Ebola virus disease […] and the threat it poses to the population.” He later died from his injuries, the party said.

The mayor of Butembo did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Reuters reported. Butembo, in North Kivu province, has recently become a hotspot in the ongoing Ebola outbreak.

The incident is the latest in a series of attacks on Ebola response teams, underscoring persistent mistrust among the population. On Saturday, armed men attacked a hand-washing checkpoint in nearby Beni territory, killing at least one person and wounding several others, a local civil society group reported. The outbreak, declared on 15 May, has infected 8,067 people and killed 3,901, according to government data released on Monday.

Sources

More on this topic: all World stories

Get Flip News by email

This opens your email app — we add you manually. No account, no spam, no third parties.