WHO Boss Apologises to DR Congo Women Abused By His Staff, Promises Perpetrators Will Face 'Justice'
16:01 GMT 28.09.2021 (Updated: 11:10 GMT 24.11.2022)
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In October 2020, the head of the World Health Organization appointed an independent commission to investigate allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The allegations centred on individuals working for the WHO during an Ebola outbreak between 2018 and 2020.
The Director General of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has apologised to dozens of women in the Democratic Republic of Congo who were either raped or offered work in exchange for sex.
A commission co-chaired by Aïchatou Mindaoudou, the former foreign minister of Niger and Julienne Lusenge, a human rights activist, found there had been widespread abuses in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri by staff hired locally by the WHO.
On 28 September, Mr Ghebreyesus said: “The first thing I want to say is to the victims and survivors of the sexual exploitation and abuse described in the commission’s report. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for what was done to you by people who were employed by WHO to serve and protect you.”
He said he was sorry for their “ongoing suffering” and he thanked them for their “courage” in coming forward.
Mr Ghebreyesus said: “It is my top priority to ensure that the perpetrators are not excused, but are held to account.”
Health workers carry the body of a man suspected of dying from the Ebola virus and left in the street
© AP Photo / Abbas Dulleh
He promised to support the survivors, address management failures and also a “wholesale reform of our structures and culture.”
An Independent Review has identified 83 alleged perpetrators of sexual exploitation abuse during the @WHO response to the Ebola outbreak in DR Congo.
— Mick Coyle (@MrMickCoyle) September 28, 2021
In 21 cases, the alleged perpetrators were @WHO employees.
The evidence heard by the review body is not an easy read (tw) pic.twitter.com/NKuCa0cCjx
The report identified 21 alleged perpetrators who were employed by WHO at the time of an Ebola outbreak in DR Congo.
Some of them are not fully identified but Mr Ghebreyesus promised they would never work for the WHO again or, hopefully, for the UN.
He said: “The commission has identified negligence on the part of certain individuals that may amount to professional misconduct in the management of some of the incidents reported. In my view, the failure of WHO employees to respond adequately to reports of sexual exploitation and abuse is as bad as the events themselves.”
Mr Ghebreyesus said he deeply regretted the victims’ suffering had been exacerbated by the WHO’s poor handling of their complaints.
The WHO is not the first international organisation to have been embroiled in such a scandal.
In 2019, British charity Oxfam was criticised by the Charity Commission for its handling of claims that its staff had exploited or sexually abused victims of the earthquake in Haiti in 2010.
An internal Oxfam investigation in 2011 led to four people being sacked and three others resigning, including its Haiti director, Roland Van Hauwermeiren.
Oxfam later admitted the whole episode was “shameful.”
