Attacks on Ebola Response

Supporting organisations and health providers with insight into the patterns of attacks on healthcare and thinking about appropriate security risk management approaches that help to mitigate the impact of attacks on health care to ensure staff safety and better health outcomes.

Social Media Monitoring

Rumours and misinformation may translate into incitement to violence against health providers and the aid sector more widely.

Threats and Violence

Monitoring reports on violence or threats of violence to support policy responses that better protect health workers and health providers during future outbreaks. Our global health map includes attacks on health care in the context of Ebola emergency responses in the DRC and South Sudan. Use the ‘Ebola’ context category to filter incidents.

Lessons Learned and Guides

Practical recommendations for implementing appropriate security risk management measures to enable response actors, including health care workers, to effectively address security challenges and mobile guide on how to implement security risk management during a public health emergency or infectious disease outbreak

Quick links

Lessons Learned

Global Health Map

Attacks on Health News Brief

Datasets on HDX

Ebola: DRC

17th Ebola Outbreak

Insecurity Insight has released a new social media monitoring brief analysing public narratives surrounding the 17th Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The brief covers the period from 11:00 CET on 18 May to 10:00 CET on 24 May 2026.

Key findings:

Two arson attacks on Ebola response facilities – at Rwampara (21 May) and Mongbwalu (22–23 May) – resulted in the flight of confirmed and suspected Ebola patients into the community and generated significant social media coverage. Coverage by posts was largely factual; comment sections revealed denial narratives, at least one direct threat to burn further health facilities, and endorsement of unsafe burial practices.

A new narrative cluster unique to this period links the outbreak to the Trump administration’s travel ban and DRC’s participation in the FIFA World Cup, connecting epidemic denial to mainstream popular sentiment.

Corruption and funding-diversion narratives remain the most structurally embedded harmful narrative, reinforced by the public disclosure that the INRB receives no operational state funding.

The primary risk remains a trust and acceptance risk, but the facility attacks indicate this trust deficit is now translating into physical obstruction of the response.

12th Ebola Outbreak

During the 12th Ebola outbreak in North Kivu province between 07 February to 03 May 2021, 12 cases of Ebola were recorded and six people died from the disease. Our social media monitoring indicates that the damaging rumours which negatively impacted public health campaigns during the 10th Ebola outbreak are still shared by some members of local communities.

11th Ebola Outbreak

During the 11th Ebola outbreak in the Equateur region between 1 June 2020 and 18 November 2020, 130 cases of Ebola were recorded and 55 people died from the disease. Our social media monitoring suggests that many Congolese citizens reacted in disbelief at the news of yet another Ebola and expressed views that the renewed presence of Ebola in Équateur was either invented or deliberately brought to the region for economic purposes. In this vein, the phrase Ebola business was regularly evoked by commentators. A reporting platform on sexual violence and abuse.

10th Ebola Outbreak

During the 10th Ebola outbreak between 1 August 2018 and 25 June 2020, 3,470 cases of Ebola were recorded and 2,287 people died from the disease. Over 400 attacks and threats against health workers in the area were reported, during the 10th Ebola response (Nov 2022 and Dec 2019).

These figures exemplify the challenges of rolling out an emergency response in areas outside of government control where the healthcare system is weak, ongoing conflict is under way, and historical tensions exist between local communities and the central government. The data and contextual dynamics particularly highlight the complexities of gaining community acceptance in areas affected by conflict and where armed groups maintain control over territories.

For practical recommendations for implementing appropriate security risk management measures to enable response actors, including health care workers, to effectively address security challenges, see our Lessons Learned report or take our 15 minute Emergency Healthcare in Insecure Settings mobile guide. Access the guide on DisasterReady! or download PDF

Allegations of widespread sexual exploitation and abuse by aid workers working in this Ebola response were also rampant.

Ebola: Uganda

September 2022

On 22 September 2022 health authorities in Uganda declared an Ebola outbreak for the first time since 2012 after a patient was declared positive for the Sudan strain (SUDV). The outbreak is of particular concern not only to Uganda, but also to its neighbouring countries such as the DRC, South Sudan and Kenya.

Our social media monitoring indicates some social media users appear to interpret and instrumentalise the disease outbreak in terms of their political struggle. This increases the risk that medical and public health interventions are also interpreted as being linked to political and financial interests, undermining the neutrality and impartiality of these interventions.

Social Media Monitoring

Lessons Learned

Threats and Violence

10th Ebola Monitoring

Further resources

Emergency Healthcare in Insecure Settings

15-min guide on how to implement security risk management measures to protect healthcare responders and communities during a public health emergency or infectious disease outbreak.

Access the guide on DisasterReady! or download PDF

Report Abuse in the Public Health Care Response

Revelations of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by aid workers working during Ebola response in the DRC demonstrates that sexual exploitation and abuse is widespread yet under reported in humanitarian emergencies. This reporting platform is for anyone working in any public health response in the DRC who has experienced sexual exploitation and abuse in the aid response.

Other Pubic Health Emergencies

This report examines aid and health worker safety and security in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Project funding

The Attacks on Health News Brief and the Social Media Monitoring are supported by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the UK government through the RIAH project at the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute at the University of Manchester, UK and through the project ‘Ending violence against healthcare in conflict: documentation, tools, and data-informed advocacy to stop and prevent attacks’ funded by the European Union. The contents are the responsibility of Insecurity Insight.

The monitoring of violence against the 10th Ebola response between September and December 2019 was funded by the H2H Fund which is supported by UK aid from the UK government. Insecurity Insight is a Humanitarian to Humanitarian (H2H) organisation committed to the Humanitarian Principles.