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'Death every day': Fear and fortitude in Uganda's Ebola epicentre
The reappearance of the virus after three years has sparked fear in Uganda as the highly contagious disease makes its way through the country of 47 million people.
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Photo taken October 27, 2022, shows Jakana Nelson (L) and Peter Kirya seen keeping guard on shops upon closure, following a presidential directive to impose curfew and Lockdown for 21 days in districts of Mubende and Kasanda to curb the spread of Ebola virus. (AFP/Badru Katumba)
A
s Ugandan farmer Bonaventura Senyonga prepares to bury his grandson, age-old traditions are forgotten and fear hangs in the air while a government medical team prepares the body for the funeral -- the latest victim of Ebola in the East African nation.
Bidding the dead goodbye is rarely a quiet affair in Uganda, where the bereaved seek solace in the embrace of community members who converge on their homes to mourn the loss together.
Not this time.
Instead, 80-year-old Senyonga is accompanied by just a handful of relatives as he digs a grave on the family's ancestral land, surrounded by banana trees.
"At first we thought it was a joke or witchcraft but when we started seeing bodies, we realised this is real and that Ebola can kill," Senyonga told AFP.
His 30-year-old grandson Ibrahim Kyeyune was a father of two girls and worked as a motorcycle mechanic in central Kassanda district, which together with neighbouring Mubende is at the epicentre of Uganda's Ebola crisis.
Both districts have been under a lockdown since mid-October, with a dawn to dusk curfew, a ban on personal travel and public places shuttered.
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