Two Ebola awareness workers murdered in DR Congo

Two community workers engaged in the Ebola prevention campaign in Democratic Republic of Congo were murdered in the country's east, which is battling an outbreak the killer disease, the health ministry said Monday.

They were killed at their respective homes in the North Kivu province, after months of threats, the ministry said.

The first case of Ebola was confirmed in Goma on Sunday, the biggest city to have been affected by the disease since its outbreak in eastern DR Congo last August, the health ministry said.

The latest Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has so far killed 1,655 people and 694 have been cured, according to a health ministry bulletin on Saturday.

And 160,239 people have been vaccinated, it added.

The World Health Organization had initially voiced hope it would be able to contain the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever, thanks in part to the new vaccine.

But efforts to tackle the crisis have been hampered both by militia attacks on treatment centers, in which some staff have been killed, and by the hostility of some local people to the medical teams.