WHO Fires Aid Workers Over Sexual Abuse in The Democratic Republic of the Congo
Alleged Congolese rape victims (Wikimedia commons)
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that it has fired four aid workers and placed two senior staff members on administrative leave on September 28 over sexual assault allegations against Congolese women. These incidents occurred during the WHO’s mission to fight Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) from 2018 to 2020.
The abuse allegations are “horrific,” says WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. In a press conference on September 28, he noted, “The first thing I want to say to the victims and survivors... [is] I am sorry... It is my top priority that the perpetrators are not excused but held to account.”
An independent commission conducted a WHO report uncovering these allegations in response to a prior investigation by The New Humanitarian and the Thomson Reuters Foundation in October of 2020. In this investigation, a total of 51 women throughout the country reported sexual abuse or exploitation from UN-based and independent non-profit aid organizations, including Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, and World Vision. Of these women, 30 directly accused men who worked for the WHO.
The more recent October 5 WHO report expanded on these allegations, finding that a total of 83 WHO employees were accused of abuse. Of these employees, 21 are permanent WHO staff, while the remaining 62 are Congolese staff. Many of the alleged victims claim that WHO workers offered them employment in exchange for sexual favors. In addition, the report found at least nine allegations of rape. Consequently, many of these individuals were disowned due to societal stigma, while others were pressured into having abortions-- a dangerous procedure in the DRC due to its illegality and subsequent medical oversight.
The international community appears to condemn these assaults. For instance, the United States, EU, UK, Australia, Canada, Norway, and New Zealand released a joint statement on October 1st, demanding that the WHO take action to reconcile their failures. They specifically requested an "assessment of the institutional policies, operational processes, leadership culture, and circumstances at WHO that allowed this to happen." They also called for "immediate action to terminate the contracts of presumed perpetrators still in their employment."
Furthermore, the European Commission stated on October 29 that it would “temporarily [suspend] the payments [to the WHO] and will refrain from awarding new funding related to the humanitarian activities undertaken by WHO in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”
Already underway is an action plan designed and released by the WHO on October 21 as a means of addressing the current situation. The plan includes a number of measures aimed at reconciling the current situation, preventing future abuses, and generally “reforming WHO's culture, structures, systems and capacity.” This initiative includes sending sexual abuse prevention experts who areversed in local cultures to a number of at-risk countries. The plan also entailsan allocation of “an initial US$7.6 million to strengthen [the WHO’s] capacity to prevent, detect and respond to sexual abuse allegations in ten countries with the highest risk profile: Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, DRC, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Venezuela and Yemen,” according to a WHO statement released on October 21.