The WHO acknowledges that its workers committed sexual abuse in the DRC

Announcements

Scandal looms over the World Health Organization (WHO). This Tuesday, an internal commission of the agency announced that at least 21 of its employees -62 more belong to other organizations- are suspected of having abused women and girls during the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, between 2018 and 2020.

The news is not new. The investigation began a few days after the publication of a report by the 'Thompson Reuters Foundation' about possible abuses against at least 63 women in the area. And not only WHO staff were involved, but also some workers from the Congolese Ministry of Health and other non-governmental organizations, who were supposedly fighting against Ebola.

"There were clear structural flaws and insufficient preparation to respond to incidents of sexual abuse, as well as individual neglect," said Malick Coulibaly, Mali's former Minister of Justice and one of those in charge of internal audit on what happened, on September 28. happened.

Complaints against the United Nations

The investigation, which took twelve months to publish its results, coincides with what some media outlets had already predicted: sexual abuse was a recurring event during the Ebola eradication campaign. During the investigation period, the commission received nine complaints of violations and accusations of extortion after the abuses committed.

"This is the largest finding of sexual abuse perpetrated during a single UN initiative in an area or a country during a specific period of time," said Paula Donovan, co-director of the Code Blue Campaign, dedicated to eradicating exploitation sex by United Nations forces.

According to the AP agency, the top management of the WHO was informed through multiple allegations of abuse in 2019. Michel Yao, a senior official of the organization, who oversaw medical and health management against Ebola in the Congo, received several allegations of sexual abuse.

But, far from putting the means to put an end to this situation, the doctor kept quiet and the body promoted him later. Until June, Yao was leading the response to the Ebola outbreak in Guinea.

A version that does not coincide with that of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director of the WHO, who said that the organization had no clues about what happened. In addition, Adhanom described this day as a "dark" day for the health organization and called the report "heartbreaking."

"The first thing I want to say to the victims and survivors of sexual exploitation and abuse in the DRC, described in the commission's report is: I am sorry. I am sorry for what the people who were employed by the WHO to serve and protect them", the WHO leader apologized during a conference on the matter.

Some say Adhanom should step down, even though countries like Germany and France have nominated him for a second term. Critics of the WHO leader argue that it is not possible for him to have remained oblivious to these abuses, since he traveled 14 times to the Democratic Republic of Congo during the Ebola pandemic.

So far, four people have been fired and two temporarily suspended from work, although no further details of the abusers are known.

Victims of abuse

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Sex in exchange for jobs, rape and extortion to force women to abort. From doctors, senior officials to drivers: they came to save them and abused their trust.

The youngest of the alleged victims, identified in the report only as "Jolianne," is 13 years old. The girl recounted that a WHO driver stopped her car in the city of Mangina, where she worked, and offered to take her home. Instead he took her to a hotel, and there she was raped.

Shekinah, a young Congolese woman, agreed to have sex with one of the organization's workers in exchange for a job. She now expects that all those involved in this plot will be "severely punished" and that they be fired from their jobs.

"When he asked me to sleep with him, given my family's financial difficulties... I accepted," explained Shekina, who, like many other women in the area, lives in precarious conditions.

Precisely this factor was mentioned by Coulibaly after the internal investigation. The victims "mostly are people in a very precarious economic and social situation," said the former Mali politician while reading the report before the United Nations.

Apart from the abuse itself, many of the offenders forbade the victims to use contraception during sexual intercourse. And, later, some of the victims were extorted to have an abortion or bribed with money and material goods in order not to report them.

This was the case of a WHO doctor, Jean-Paul Ngandu, who signed a contract with two other agency officials in which they promised to buy land for a young woman. This action was intended to buy her silence after Ngandu allegedly left her pregnant, although the person involved assured the AP agency that he did it after pressure to protect the reputation of the WHO.

Premature abortions and unwanted children have marked the future of many of these women. Something that has left psychological sequelae in many of the victims, according to the health agency's own report.

"The WHO should also think about making amends for women traumatized by rape and the dozens of children who were born with unwanted pregnancies as a result of rape," said Julie Londo, a member of the Congolese Women's Union.

For its part, the WHO has promised reparations to the victims and establish DNA tests to establish paternity, which allow women to fight for their rights and those of their children.

With Reuters, AP, EFE and local media

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