A six year old child, taken from a hospital isolation ward in the Democratic Republic of Congo during a peak Ebola outbreak, has been located and is safe. Sources on the ground confirm the boy was seized by armed men from the treatment centre in Beni on Tuesday night. The abduction sparked global panic, raising fears of a new wave of infections if the child were moved across borders.
British health teams deployed to the region have been on high alert. The child was found early this morning in a village twenty miles from the hospital. He is reportedly unharmed and under medical observation.
How he was taken and why remains under investigation. The abduction of a patient during an epidemic is a grim reminder of the volatility and lawlessness that aid workers face, even as they battle a virus that kills half its victims. This time, the outcome was mercy.
But the underlying rot remains.