Democratic Republic of Congo announced the end of an almost six-month Ebola outbreak in the west of the country on Wednesday.

Repeated attacks on treatment centers by armed militiamen and community members who think Ebola is a conspiracy against them have hampered the response to the second-deadliest outbreak of the haemorrhagic fever in history.

The spread of Ebola from a rural area to Mbandaka, a city of more than 1 million people, has raised alarm as the deadly disease can spread more quickly in densely populated urban centers.