Crowd sets Ebola hospital tents on fire in DRC
Global News Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 8.2K Ratings
🗓️ 22 May 2026
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
An angry crowd has set fire to part of a hospital in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after the death of a suspected Ebola victim. The BBC understands relatives stormed the facility and tried to remove the body after health workers refused to release it. Medical staff at the Rwampara Hospital are under military protection. Also: President Trump says he will be sending 5,000 more troops to Poland. Meta settles a social media addiction case with a US school district. And scientists discover that beluga whales can recognise themselves in a mirror.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.7 | This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:12.1 | I'm Celie Hatton, and in the early hours of Friday, the 22nd of May, these are our main stories. |
| 0:18.3 | A hospital treating Ebola patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been partially set ablaze by a crowd trying to retrieve the body of someone infected. |
| 0:29.1 | Not long after he removed troops from Germany and Poland, Donald Trump says he's sending 5,000 soldiers back to Polish territory. |
| 0:40.2 | Also in this podcast, the U.S. says Cuba has agreed to its conditional offer of $100 million |
| 0:46.2 | in aid. |
| 0:47.5 | We're not going to do humanitarian aid that falls into the hands of their military company |
| 0:51.6 | that they have. |
| 0:52.7 | But Cuba says it fears the Trump administration is planning to attack it. |
| 1:02.5 | In the Democratic Republic of Congo, more than 150 people are believed to have died in the current Ebola outbreak in the country. |
| 1:10.6 | The actual figures are still unclear as the authorities try to assess the spread of the disease. |
| 1:17.1 | But as the number of cases are rising, tensions are too. |
| 1:21.6 | On Thursday, part of a medical facility in Rampara in the east of the DRC was set on fire when relatives and friends |
| 1:29.3 | tried to retrieve the body of a young patient who said to have died of Ebola. |
| 1:35.5 | Also hoping to claim the body of a family member was Benjamin Benduka, |
| 1:39.9 | who found a group of people gathered outside the health clinic when he arrived. |
| 1:47.8 | They became angry, demanding to know why the young man had died. |
| 1:51.9 | This caused a commotion, ending in the youth setting fire to the treatment centre, which was built for Ebola patients. |
| 1:58.5 | And inside was the body of my own brother, which was burnt beyond recognition. |
| 2:02.9 | His body remains there now. He hasn't even been placed in a coffin or buried. |
| 2:08.3 | The arson attack reflects a big challenge health workers face in the DRC, |
... |
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