WHO allegations of sexual assault: Agency staff carried out rapes during the Ebola response in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, says report | world News

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An official report says 21 WHO staff members were involved in sexual assault during the agency’s response to the Ebola crisis in Central Africa.

The allegations, which include nine rape cases, were identified by a special panel commissioned by the World Health Organization to look into allegations related to the United Nations health agency in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

It found that a total of 83 perpetrators were involved in alleged sexual abuse during the two-year response period, including 21, in what has been described as the largest sex abuse scandal linked to a United Nations institution in years.

The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the report prepared by the committee came as “a shocking read”.

“I am sorry for what the people who work for the World Health Organization have done to serve and protect you,” he said, apparently referring to the victims.

He said the findings would require “comprehensive reforms to our structure and culture” and all known perpetrators of sexual abuse would be barred from serving at the WHO in the future, with four already dismissed.

Western diplomatic sources, who attended a closed-door briefing with WHO officials, said two other people had been placed on administrative leave.

More about the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The director of the World Health Organization in Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, said the results were “humbled, horrified and sad”.

Photo: WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

Both foreigners and Congolese were among the 83 alleged perpetrators identified.

The report said the majority of Congolese employees were hired on a temporary basis and abused their apparent power to obtain sexual favours.

AP News and the Thomson Reuters Foundation, which worked with New Humanitarian, published separate allegations alleging that aid workers from the World Health Organization and major charities abused their positions during the 2018-2020 Ebola crisis in the country.

The accused included a WHO doctor and two other acting officials, who were said to have promised to buy land for a young woman who became pregnant.

WHO chief Tedros made 14 trips to the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the outbreak and publicly praised the work of at least one of those accused by the AP.

Photo: International aid agencies and officials from the Democratic Republic of the Congo battled the Ebola virus between 2018 and 2020

Nearly 50 countries, including Britain, the United States and Canada, later issued a statement expressing their “deep concerns” about the World Health Organization’s handling of sexual assault allegations.

The AP has since obtained recordings of meetings during which WHO’s head of emergencies Dr Michael Ryan admitted allegations of sexual abuse in the DRC were likely “the tip of the iceberg” and were part of a problem that “also reflects a culture”.

UCOFEM member Julie Londo praised the World Health Organization for punishing staff members implicated in the abuse allegations, but said the agency needed to go further.

“The World Health Organization should also consider compensating the traumatized women of rape and the dozens of children born with unwanted pregnancies as a result of rape,” she said.

“There are dozens of girls in Butembo and Beni who had children with doctors during the Ebola epidemic, but today their families have brought back others because they have children with foreigners… We will continue our struggle to end these abuses.”

The WHO has faced criticism from a variety of sources in recent years, with the United States cutting ties with it over its relationship with China, and criticism from others for failing to fully investigate and respond to the origins of COVID-19.

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