Guinea arrests 27 for slaying Ebola health workers, journalists

Police in Guinea have arrested 27 people for the killing of a group of Ebola health education workers and journalists, news outlets including Agence France-Presse reported.

Molou Chérif, and Sidiki Sidibé of a community radio station in the city of Nzérékoré and Facély Camara of Guinea's Radio Liberté FM went missing in the village of Womey in southeastern Guinea Sept. 16 along with the five health workers. At least 21 other people were injured when the team was pelted with stones by angry villagers, the French news agency said, citing local police. The bodies of the deceased were found in the septic tank of a local school Sept. 18.

The reporters and the health team had both been lynched, according to Reporters Without Borders, a France-based press freedom group. The villagers attacked the journalists after accusing them of spreading the deadly virus and disseminating foreign propaganda about the disease.

Although there have been similar attacks against health workers in countries affected by the Ebola epidemic, these were the first deaths from such attacks, according to the Associated Press.

At least 2,811 people have died of the virus through Sept. 19 during the current outbreak in West Africa, according to the Centers for Disease Control, including 632 in Guinea.