"The police intervened to try to calm the situation, but unfortunately they were unsuccessful," Alexis Burata, a local student who said he was in the area, told The Associated Press.

"The young people ended up setting fire to the center. That's the situation."

An Associated Press journalist saw people break into the center at Rwampara Hospital and set fire to objects inside, and also to what appeared to be the body of at least one suspected Ebola victim that was being stored there. Aid workers fled the treatment center in vehicles.

The crowd set fire to two tents fitted with eight beds run by a medical charity called The Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA), said Deputy Senior Commissioner Jean-Claude Mukendi, head of the public security department in Ituri Province.

Mukendi said the youths had not understood the protocols for burying a suspected Ebola victim.

"His family, friends, and other young people wanted to take his body home for a funeral even though the instructions from the authorities during this Ebola virus outbreak are clear," Mukendi said. "All bodies must be buried according to the regulations."

Mother Speaks Out

Family members of a man who died, soccer player Eli Munongo Wangu, wanted to bury their loved one themselves.

Munongo had played for several local teams and was a well-known figure in his neighborhood. He had been admitted to the hospital days earlier. A doctor said he was a suspected Ebola case, and the hospital had taken samples to run tests.

His mother told Reuters she believes her son had died of typhoid fever, not Ebola.

Authorities buried Munongo safely on Friday.

Calm Restored

Army and police reinforcements arrived to bring the situation under control, according to Mukendi.

Patrick Muyaya, Congo's communication minister, said on X that "calm has been restored and care is continuing normally" at the center in Rwampara.

Muyaya and ALIMA said that six patients were being treated in the part of the facility set on fire.

They have all been located and are being cared for at a hospital. Security measures have been strengthened, Muyaya said.