UN : ''DR CONGO'S : EBOLA TEAM''

UN official blasts violence against Ebola teams in DR Congo.

THE UN special representative to DR Congo blasted rumours that the world body was trying to cash in on Ebola epidemic that has claimed more than 1,000 lives.

Leila Zeerougui, head of the UN mission to the sprawling central African nation, last Friday, visited  the eastern city of Butembo where she slammed as ''sheer madness'' local speculations that  :

''There is no illness, that they want to poison us because they are trying to cash in on us.''

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said additional resources were required to deal with the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Some UN teams helping to fight the second deadliest  Ebola outbreak on record after the epidemic that killed 11,300 people in West Africa in 2014- 16  have come under attack and even been killed.

The epidemic has so far killed 1,105 people of 1,649 declared cases since last August in North Kivu province, where Butembo is located, according to latest official data. [Agencies]