A prominent official from the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s governing party was reportedly beaten to death on Sunday after speaking on radio about the Ebola outbreak, according to a party spokesperson.

Marie-Celestin Karondwa, interim head of the federal executive committee of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) in Butembo, an area affected by the outbreak, was assaulted after joining a radio broadcast in which he encouraged residents to follow disease-prevention guidance, the local UDPS branch said in a statement.

The party said Karondwa was beaten by assailants, who took his possessions and burned his home. He later died as a result of the injuries he sustained.

Authorities had not immediately established who was behind the attack, how many people took part or what the motive was. However, the party described Karondwa as “an innocent victim” who had supported its position that Ebola was real and represented a serious danger to the public.

His death followed a number of attacks targeting medical staff and Ebola treatment facilities. Specialists say such violence has been driven by false claims about the illness, widespread misinformation and mistrust toward health workers.

Previous incidents have involved assaults, unrest, destruction of property and interruptions to vital public services. On Saturday, armed attackers struck a hand-washing station in the nearby Beni area, killing at least one person and injuring several others, according to a local civil society organisation.

Ebola was first discovered in 1976 in what is now the DRC. It is a highly infectious virus that can be fatal in humans and other primates. The disease can spread through bodily fluids and contaminated objects, causing serious organ damage, harm to blood vessels and, in some cases, severe internal or external bleeding.

The outbreak described was linked to the uncommon Bundibugyo strain, for which no officially approved vaccine or treatment was available at the time. It was announced on 15 May and had infected 8,067 people, causing 3,901 deaths, according to figures from the DRC health ministry.

Infections had been confirmed across seven provinces.

The epidemic was described as the biggest and most lethal Ebola outbreak in the country’s history. Globally, it was second only to the 2014-16 epidemic in west Africa, which affected more than 28,600 people and killed over 11,000.

Figures from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention indicated that the outbreak was progressing faster than the west African crisis.

The World Health Organization warned the previous month that it could exceed the scale of the west Africa outbreak. Experts said the spread had been worsened by ongoing conflict, reduced humanitarian funding and repeated attacks against healthcare personnel and treatment sites.