Yaoundé, Cameroon — Health authorities in Sub-Saharan Africa said armed gangs and rebel groups are obstructing their access to towns and villages that are suspected of having mpox cases.
The United Nations said international awareness is needed to reduce the upsurge of the virus, which is transmitted to humans by other humans and by infected animals, and which has been designated a public health emergency of international concern.
Officials in the Central African Republic say health workers striving to contain an outbreak of the mpox virus are complaining of difficulties gaining safe access to towns and villages where armed gangs operate.
Government troops are fighting rebels to stop violence and political turmoil that began in 2013.
Health Minister Pierre Somse, speaking on state TV, said armed groups should know that civilians need urgent assistance.
The country had 10 suspected cases in 2023, and 45 so far this year. But additional cases in in remote areas may be unreported. Armed groups in conflict zones, like Bayanga town near the Congo border, should assist the government in stopping the disease, Somse says.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is another country with internal armed conflict, and WHO says that the country has more than 95% of the total of about 17,000 cases of mpox reported globally this year. The central African state has reported close to 530 deaths from the disease.
The U.N. said within the past few months, the virus has spread to five of Congo's neighbors - Central African Republic, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda.
Longunza Malassi Joseph, adviser to Democratic Republic of Congo's environment minister, said the virus spreads rapidly because humanitarian workers have difficulty securely visiting conflict-prone Sub-Saharan communities.
"People run from areas where there is conflict and in that running away, there is no observation of hygiene. People just run for their lives," Longunza told VOA. "This poses a problem because you can't teach people to observe health measures when they are first running for their own lives. Health professionals sometimes have to cross areas that are not secured. They can be attacked. They can be killed."
Cameroon officials also said rebels are making it nearly impossible for health workers to have safe access to English-speaking regions where there are ongoing conflicts between government troops and armed separatists fighting to carve out independent states or regions from the French-majority country.
Since July, Cameroon has reported at least 40 suspected mpox cases with three deaths. About a dozen of the more than 40 cases are documented in Cameroon's English-speaking southwest region where government troops are fighting separatists.
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The Republic of Congo says it has confirmed 19 of 60 suspected cases in its territory.
Nigerian officials said humanitarian workers were being restricted from educating civilians to protect themselves from mpox after 32 states reported at least one confirmed case of the virus. Nigeria has been fighting for more than 10 years against Boko Haram terrorists near its northern border with Chad, Cameroon and Niger.
Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic and Congo are deploying government troops to protect civilians and health care workers from rebels and armed groups.
None of the Sub-Saharan countries have reported deaths of humanitarian workers.
