WHO Chief openly apologises to victims of sex abuse by 21 WHO workers in Congo

After a year of investigation related to sexual abuse by some of the WHO doctors during an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a WHO-commissioned investigative panel on Tuesday, in a report, identified 83 alleged perpetrators connected to the 2018-2020 mission.

Notably, it was the first time the UN agency investigated such a large number of allegations claimed against its own staff in the African country. According to the panel report, at least 21 workers for the World Health Organization in Congo were accused of sexually abusing people during an Ebola outbreak in 2019.

Press conference held in response to the sexual abuse reported in Congo:

Though the top officials of the specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health reiterated they were not aware of the misconduct, an Associated Press investigation report revealed that a senior WHO management member, Dr Michel Yao, knew all the development regarding multiple abuse claims in 2019. However, the management failed to stop the harassment. Surprisingly, they promoted one of the managers involved.

"This is the biggest finding of sexual abuse perpetrated during a single U.N. initiative in one area or one country during the time-bound period of a U.N. response effort," said Paula Donovan, co-director of the Code Blue Campaign, which is campaigning to end sexual exploitation by UN peacekeepers.

Accused committed rape in the pretext of offering job: Victim

While addressing a press conference about the investigation, Malick Coulibaly, a panel member, said that the investigators revealed nine rape allegations in which the victims alleged they were forced to establish a sexual relationship without using any contraceptive, resulting in some pregnancies.

She revealed that the victims also claimed that the rapists had forced them to have abortions multiple times. While speaking to the Associated Press, a young Congolese woman, Shekinah, said that she had accepted an offer to have sex with WHO’s Boubacar Diallo in exchange for a job. However, she now hoped that he would be sanctioned by the World Health Organisation and banned from working for WHO again.

"I would like him and other doctors who will be charged to be punished severely so that it will serve as a lesson to other untouchable doctors of the WHO," said Shekinah, who declined to give her last name for fear of retribution.

Despite travelling Congo 14 times, WHO Chief failed to discover any misconduct

Meanwhile, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, while reading the apology to the victims of sexual abuse, called it a dark day for the WHO. 

"The first thing I want to say to the victims and survivors. I am sorry," apologised Tedros during the press conference. He informed that four of the accused were fired and two were placed on administrative leave as a result of the scandal. However, he did not reveal the identities of the accused. 

While explaining about the promotion of one of the accused, Tedros said that he had travelled Congo 14 times during the outbreak but failed to know of the developments. The WHO chief regretted that he had publicly commended Diallo for his heroic work instead.

With inputs from AP

Image: AP