3OCT

UDPS official beaten to death in Butembo

2 min read

13:42UTC

Marie-Célestin Karondwa, acting Butembo head of DR Congo's governing party, had spoken about Ebola prevention on local radio; who attacked him has not been established.

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Key takeaway

A Butembo party official WHO spoke on Ebola prevention was killed; the motive is unknown.

Marie-Célestin Karondwa, acting Butembo president of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), DR Congo's governing party, was attacked at his home on 27 September and died of his injuries, Al Jazeera reported, citing his party⁠¹. He had spoken about Ebola prevention on local radio. WHO attacked him, and why, has not been established.

Butembo, a trading city in North Kivu province, has become the focus of the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak's move south. It was also the centre of community resistance in the 2018-2020 epidemic. Five health facilities in the city burned between 26 July and 1 September amid rumours about the response, Congo Quotidien reported⁠².

Ebola control depends on people reporting fever, accepting isolation and allowing safe burials, and each of those steps needs trust in the teams asking. In May protesters torched a treatment centre elsewhere in the country's east, which then had to be rebuilt. A burned clinic also removes a place where a patient can be tested close to home.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Butembo is a busy trading city in eastern DR Congo, now at the centre of the Ebola outbreak. Many people there distrust the teams sent to fight the disease, partly because of past conflict and politics. In about five weeks this summer, five clinics in the city were set on fire after rumours about the Ebola response. In September, a local leader of the governing party, WHO had spoken on the radio about how to avoid Ebola, was beaten to death. Police have not said WHO killed him or why. Attacks like these make health workers' jobs more dangerous and can push sick people away from treatment.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

Butembo's distrust has a long political history. The city and neighbouring Beni were excluded from the December 2018 presidential vote on Ebola grounds, which many residents read as political, and that memory attaches to every response measure.

Armed groups operate around Butembo and Beni, and killings there are frequent, so a death cannot be read as Ebola-related without evidence. The killing of a local official from the governing party adds a political layer to an already strained response.

The third factor is that, with 34% of confirmed patients outside Ebola wards, families see the response failing. When patients die on general wards or at home, families see the response failing them, and rumours of collusion fill the gap.

What could happen next?

Risk
Further arson in Butembo would remove beds from the province where MSF already reports a third of confirmed patients outside Ebola units.
Short term · Suggested
Consequence
Local leaders may stop speaking publicly about Ebola prevention until the killing is explained.
Immediate · Suggested
Risk
Heavier security escorts for response teams could deepen distrust, as MSF argued in 2019.
Short term · Suggested

Source Landscape

This story draws on mixed-leaning sources from Qatar

Qatar

Primary parallel: On 19 April 2019 gunmen killed Richard Mouzoko, a Cameroonian WHO epidemiologist, at Butembo's university hospital during a meeting on the Ebola response. Butembo and nearby Katwa remained the slowest areas to clear for the rest of that epidemic. No link between that killing, or any Ebola-related motive, and Karondwa's death has been established.

Counter-parallel: In September 2014 villagers in Womey, Guinea, killed eight members of a health education team. Resistance in parts of Guinea persisted well into 2015, and no Ebola response since has found a reliable way to end violence once it starts.

Consensus view: John Paluku Kameta, civil-society president in Butembo's Bulengera district, told Congo Quotidien the arson attacks on clinics were 'nearly recurring', set off by rumours around unconfirmed cases and suspicion that health officials collude with response teams. On this reading the violence follows the information gap, and better local communication reduces it.

Counter-view: During the 2018-2020 epidemic, MSF's then international president Joanne Liu argued in March 2019 that a response escorted by police and soldiers was itself driving distrust. On that view the cause lies in how the response is run, and a security crackdown after attacks makes the next one more likely.

Key tension: No link between Karondwa's killing and his radio talk has been established, so the response cannot yet tell whether it faces targeted violence or crime in a city already under strain.

Sources:Congo Quotidien·Al Jazeera

Mentions:Butembo →Union for Democracy and Social Progress →North Kivu →Al Jazeera →Guinea →DR Congo →Congo Quotidien →Ebola →Beni →Katwa →Bulengera →Womey →

First Reported In

Update #14 · River boat carries Ebola 1,000 km downriver

Congo Quotidien· 3 Oct 2026

Read original →

Causes and effects

Caused by

Ebola shifts south to DR Congo's Butembo

Violence in Butembo came as the city became the centre of new Ebola cases.

Occurred 23 Sept 2026

Read story →

This Event

UDPS official beaten to death in Butembo

The killing comes in the city now at the centre of DR Congo's Ebola outbreak, where five health facilities burned this summer.

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