Eight members of a team trying to raise awareness about the Ebola Virus Disease have been killed by villagers using machetes and clubs in Guinea.
On Thursday night, government spokesman, Albert Damantang Camara said the victims had been “killed in cold blood by the villagers.”
Some of the bodies were discovered in a septic tank in a village school near the city of Nzerekore. Officials said the bodies showed signs of being attacked with machetes and clubs.
The team disappeared after being stoned by the villagers when they arrived in the Village of Wome in Southern Guinea, where the Ebola outbreak was first recorded.
The motive for the killings has not been confirmed, but there are speculations that many villagers accuse health workers of spreading the disease.
Last month, riots erupted in Nzerekore, 50 km (30 miles) from Wome, after rumours that medics who were disinfecting a market were contaminating people. While some of the villagers still do not believe that the disease exists.
Six people have so far been arrested and the village is now reportedly deserted.
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