WHO admits that its staff committed sexual abuse against women and girls in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

At least 21 employees of the World Health Organization (WHO) are suspected of having committed sexual abuse against women and girls during the response to the Ebola outbreak suffered by the Democratic Republic of Congo between 2018 and 2020, an internal investigative commission concluded today.

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That commission determined after twelve months of investigations that some of the victims were promised jobs in exchange for sexual relations, and it also received complaints of nine possible rapes, as well as extortion of women who were forced to have an abortion after suffering these abuses.

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SEVERAL NATIONALITIES AMONG THE SUSPECT

The commission’s report published today counts that at least 63 women and girls suffered these abuses, and points out that in addition to the 21 WHO suspects there are another 62 possible perpetrators, of different nationalities, although neither their names nor personal details have been made. public at the moment.

The abuses “took place in hotels and in rented houses” by these perpetrators, and the victims “are mostly people in a very precarious economic and social situation”, One of the commission members, Malick Coulibaly, a former Mali Justice Minister, highlighted when reading the results of the investigation.

In many cases, the victims “did not obtain the jobs that they had been promised in exchange for sexual relations”, while others reported having suffered repeated harassment to keep their jobs or having been fired for refusing to have relationships.

Some of These sexual abuses, the report points out, were carried out without contraceptive methods, by imposition of the aggressor, and they could end in unwanted pregnancies, premature births and abortions, these preliminary investigations indicate.

After knowing the preliminary results of the investigation, the director general of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, apologized to the victims, declared himself responsible for the “failures in the system” that this case has shown and promised reforms in the organization to prevent these events from being repeated in the future.

In this sense, the report denounces that the WHO made mistakes when recruiting personnel for the response to the Ebola outbreak, declared between August 2018 and June 2020 and which was the second worst in the history of this disease, since it infected 3,400 people, of which 2,300 died .

NEGLIGENCE IN THE RECRUITMENT OF PERSONNEL

“There were clear structural failures and insufficient preparation to respond to incidents of sexual abuse, as well as individual neglect”Coulibaly noted today.

About, Tedros He assured that actions will be taken to improve the inspection of candidates for positions of responsibility in the WHO, in order to “regain the trust of the people we serve.”

The head of the WHO noted that the data of these suspects of sexual abuse will be presented to the authorities of the DR Congo and from some countries of origin of the accused in order to continue criminal investigations.

At an administrative level, he indicated that four of the suspects have been fired, and that measures will be taken to prohibit the 21 alleged aggressors from returning to work at the WHO and other agencies linked to the United Nations.

He also anticipated possible disciplinary action for personnel who did not report these incidents, or who may have made mistakes in recruiting employees for the Ebola response.

“We apologize to the women and girls for what they have suffered at the hands of workers who were sent to their communities to help in the difficult situation generated by an epidemic ”, The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Tshidi Moeti, stressed.

The investigative commission was created in October 2020, a few days after “The New Humanitarian” and the Thompson Reuters Foundation published a report on possible abuses against unskilled personnel (community workers, cooks, cleaners, etc.).

The complaints also targeted workers from the Congolese Ministry of Health and non-governmental organizations that also collaborated in the fight against the Ebola outbreak.

The events, and the outbreak itself, took place in the northeastern provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri, an area mired in a forgotten conflict for more than two decades involving militias from neighboring Rwanda.

Humanitarian organizations have denounced that the systematic rapes of women are one of the most common crimes committed by the militias in this conflict.

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Deshawn