By By Karen Graham Sep 19, 2014 in World At least eight aid workers and journalists accompanying them were killed and their bodies dumped into a latrine in a remote village in Guinea this week. The group had come to the village to educate people on Ebola and how to avoid getting the disease. Instead, a group of villagers turned on them, attacking the aid workers with machetes, clubs and rocks, killing eight of them. One of the journalists escaped the massacre by hiding in the forest, and told reporters she could hear the villagers searching for her. A government delegation was immediately dispatched to the region, but was unable to proceed because a bridge on the main road had been destroyed. Initially, the Guinea government said the workers had been taken captive, and the villagers were tearing down the bridges because of their distrust and fear of Ebola. According to a resident of the village, the meeting started out well. “The traditional chiefs welcomed the delegation with 10 kola nuts as a traditional greeting. It was afterwards that some youths came out and started stoning them. They dragged some of them away, and damaged their vehicles.” It wasn't until Thursday night that the truth of the story came out. “The eight bodies were found in the village latrine,” government spokesman Damantang Albert Camara told Reuters. “Three of them had their throats slit.” He added in a separate interview: They were “killed in cold blood by the villagers.” In the aftermath of the killings, six villagers have been arrested, and the village itself is now deserted. While the motives for the killings have not been confirmed, While it is unusual for violence against international aid workers to reach the level of murder, internal violence has plagued countries impacted with the epidemic all along. WHO expert Pierre Formenty says "This population in the forested area has really suffered a lot in the last 20 years. They are in a post-conflict behavior, there is lack of trust obviously between these populations and the different governments for the three countries." Formenty said the murders should not impact on the mission the world community has to contain and defeat the Ebola virus. He went of to say, "We should continue the dialogue with the community, we should continue to explain our work, continue to show our empathy with the victims, with the families, with the communities." The World Health Organization says that just in the past week, 700 new cases of Rbola have been diagnosed, showing the disease is still accelerating. Of the 5,300 cases in total, half have emerged in the past three weeks. The slaughter of the aid workers occurred where the Ebola epidemic began seven long months ago, in a remote village in the dense forests of southeast Guinea. Earlier this week, the group of aid workers and their accompanying journalists arrived in the village of Wome . They had come to spread awareness, and to educate people on Ebola, hoping to dispel the fears and superstitions that abound with so many of the people.Instead, a group of villagers turned on them, attacking the aid workers with machetes, clubs and rocks, killing eight of them. Reuters is reporting that this incident, resulting in outright murder of aid workers is the first time this kind of violence has cropped up in resistance to international aid in trying to curb the Ebola epidemic.One of the journalists escaped the massacre by hiding in the forest, and told reporters she could hear the villagers searching for her. A government delegation was immediately dispatched to the region, but was unable to proceed because a bridge on the main road had been destroyed. Initially, the Guinea government said the workers had been taken captive, and the villagers were tearing down the bridges because of their distrust and fear of Ebola.According to a resident of the village, the meeting started out well. “The traditional chiefs welcomed the delegation with 10 kola nuts as a traditional greeting. It was afterwards that some youths came out and started stoning them. They dragged some of them away, and damaged their vehicles.”It wasn't until Thursday night that the truth of the story came out. “The eight bodies were found in the village latrine,” government spokesman Damantang Albert Camara told Reuters. “Three of them had their throats slit.” He added in a separate interview: They were “killed in cold blood by the villagers.”In the aftermath of the killings, six villagers have been arrested, and the village itself is now deserted. While the motives for the killings have not been confirmed, the BBC's Makeme Bamba in Guinea's capital, Conakry, says "many villagers accuse the health workers of spreading the disease."While it is unusual for violence against international aid workers to reach the level of murder, internal violence has plagued countries impacted with the epidemic all along. WHO expert Pierre Formenty says "This population in the forested area has really suffered a lot in the last 20 years. They are in a post-conflict behavior, there is lack of trust obviously between these populations and the different governments for the three countries."Formenty said the murders should not impact on the mission the world community has to contain and defeat the Ebola virus. He went of to say, "We should continue the dialogue with the community, we should continue to explain our work, continue to show our empathy with the victims, with the families, with the communities."The World Health Organization says that just in the past week, 700 new cases of Rbola have been diagnosed, showing the disease is still accelerating. Of the 5,300 cases in total, half have emerged in the past three weeks. More about Aid workers, Ebola, Guinea, resistance to aid, Distrust More news from Aid workers Ebola Guinea resistance to aid Distrust dumped in latrine