BENI, Congo (AP) - A local official says rebels have killed a dozen people in an area of eastern Congo where an Ebola virus outbreak has persisted for nearly a year.

The administrator for the Beni territory, Kasereka Kibwana Donat, confirmed on Tuesday that the rebels had killed nine people in Oicha and three others in Eringeti in overnight attacks.

Hundreds of people in the Beni area have been killed in rebel attacks in recent years, angering a population that asks why authorities in the faraway capital of Kinshasa have not done more to protect them.

Wariness of outsiders has at times hampered the efforts of health workers trying to contain the Ebola outbreak, which has killed more than 1,700 people. And deadly rebel attacks force critical work including Ebola vaccinations to pause.

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