Fear and ignorance

A ruling-party official in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Marie-Celestin Karondwa, was beaten to death and his house burned after he spoke on radio about the country's Ebola outbreak, which has infected more than 8,000 people and killed roughly 4,000 this year. Health workers and treatment centers there have faced repeated attacks fueled by rumor and distrust, and the government fears the outbreak could exceed the 11,000 deaths from the 2014-16 West African epidemic.

In Madagascar, at least 13 people with albinism, ten of them children, have been kidnapped and beheaded this year amid a belief that their body parts bring luck or power, often for a price. A U.N. expert on albinism says large sums of money drive the killings, and observers note the attacks tend to spike before elections.

The piece connects both horrors to a U.S. executive order cutting foreign aid funding, which President Trump justified by saying the foreign aid bureaucracy is 'antithetical to American values' and destabilizes world peace. The column argues American fear and ignorance, including around race, religion and gender, cause more global damage than either atrocity described.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.