Understanding People's Resistance to Ebola Responses in The
FROM BIOLEGITIMACY TO ANTIHUMANITARIANISM | MAY 2021 Photo by: Ernest Katembo Ngetha. From Biolegitimacy to Antihumanitarianism: Understanding People’s Resistance to Ebola Responses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Aymar Nyenyezi Bisoka, Koen Vlassenroot, and Lucien Ramazani 8 Congo Research Briefs | Issue 8 FROM BIOLEGITIMACY TO ANTIHUMANITARIANISM: UNDERSTANDING PEOPLE’S RESISTANCE TO EBOLA RESPONSES IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO Aymar Nyenyezi Bisoka, Koen Vlassenroot, and Lucien Ramazani1 INTRODUCTION authorities and their ineffectiveness in providing security and creating The tenth outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in the Democratic lasting peace in areas hit by conflict. In such areas, people prioritize Republic of the Congo (DRC) officially started in August 2018 security above health provisions and feel abandoned by those they in the eastern province of North Kivu, leading the World Health expect to care about them. As one respondent told us, “we die more Organization (WHO), on July 17, 2019, to recognize it as a “public from war than from Ebola and no one cares about it.”4 The local health emergency of international concern.”2 At its formal conclusion population experienced the Ebola health crisis as an opportunity not on June 26, 2020, the pandemic had resulted in 3,470 reported to aim for better health care but to demand protection and peace. cases, including 2,287 deaths.3 Despite its devastating impact, local These observations tell us that, rather than accepting the health- populations seemed to be skeptical about the existence of the new care priorities of humanitarian interventions, people living in North pandemic. Consequently, the outbreak saw substantial and often Kivu saw the pandemic as a moment of struggle and resistance fierce local resistance to the medical response, including armed and mobilized to express their demands to a wide range of public attacks on Ebola treatment centers (ETCs) and violence toward authorities.
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