Bunia, July 6th, 2026 (CPA). – Ebola response workers in Ituri Province, northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, announced to CPA that they had resumed their duties on Monday after threatening to go on strike over unpaid allowances. « After meeting with the Incident Manager, we held in-depth discussions. Together with the entire response team, we decided to resume work as from this Monday while awaiting further developments, » said Jems Losanda, spokesperson for the Ebola response workers. « As of today, we have submitted a memorandum together with the response teams demanding payment of our allowances. We wish to inform the Provincial Governor that we have still not been paid, » he added.
For his part, the Incident Manager, Professor Pierre Akilimali, urged all response teams to prioritize unity in order to ensure the continuity of field operations against the Ebola outbreak.
« I am here because we must fight the epidemic, not fight among ourselves. If misunderstandings have arisen between colleagues, we must find solutions so that we can bring this outbreak under control as quickly as possible. Strike actions prevent us from carrying out our daily activities, » he stressed.
« Let us work together so that we can finally put an end to this Ebola outbreak, » he concluded. The response teams, coordinated by the Ministry in charge of Public Health, the World Health Organization (WHO) and several partners, remain deployed on the ground to break the chain of community transmission. The regular payment of allowances to local response workers remains one of the major challenges to ensuring the stability and effectiveness of epidemiological interventions in the field.