Source: The New Humanitarian
May 14, 2021
The World Health Organization has been accused of covering up sex abuse claims against its workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo during the Ebola outbreak between 2018 and 2020. The WHO knew about allegations against one of its senior doctors during the Ebola crisis – a doctor with close ties to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus – but denied knowledge of the claims, according to The Associated Press, which obtained private emails, legal documents, and recordings of internal meetings. Another doctor allegedly tried to pay off a woman he impregnated. Neither of the men were disciplined, according to the AP. The New Humanitarian and the Thomson Reuters Foundation first broke the story last year about widespread aid worker sex abuse in Congo. This week, we published a second investigation with new claims of aid worker sex abuse during the Ebola outbreak. In total, 44 of the 73 women we interviewed accused men who said they worked for the WHO. Among the new claims: a woman who said she was raped by a WHO worker, and another woman who was allegedly lured into a sex-for-work scheme and died after a botched abortion.