The World Health Organization faces new controversy after the organization's employees were involved in incidents of sexual abuse and exploitation during an Ebola crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to an investigation's findings by an independent commission announced Tuesday.
The involvement on WHO's part in this episode came down to 21 out of a total of 83 total aid workers accused of sex abuse—with nine formal allegations of rape. If not the World Health Organization, the aid workers came from other groups like Alima, Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, UNICEF, and World Vision.
The instances took place during the DRC's 10th Ebola Outbreak, between August 2018 and June 25, 2020. Over 3,000 people were infected and 2,299 people died.
When it came to accounts of abuse, 75 victims—63 women and 12 men—stepped forward, being as young as 13-years-old.
A play-by-play of the findings was broadcasted via the World Health Organization's official Twitter account. In the Twitter thread, the boss of WHO directly apologized to the victims impacted.
"The first thing I want to say is to the victims and survivors of the sexual exploitation and abuse in #DRC described in the commission’s report:
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) September 28, 2021
I’m sorry. I’m sorry for what was done to you by people who were employed by WHO to serve and protect you"-@DrTedros
It was ironically the Director General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom, who commissioned an independent panel to investigate the allegations of sexual abuse in the first place.
What was released Tuesday is the culmination of this nearly year-long effort into finding answers that started back in October 2020.
In the summary by The Washington Post here were some of the most egregious cases: "One woman said she was coerced into sex by a WHO expatriate doctor, became pregnant and was given abortion pills. Another woman told investigators she was promised a job as a hygienist if she gave in to the advances of a response administrator in Butembo — and said she needed the money to support her four children. Another woman said sex was frequently exchanged for favors at a response base camp in Beni."
The specifics in their case involved both people local to the area, but also foreign staff members. 29 women became pregnant as a result of the sexual abuse they endured, with 22 pregnancies carried out to full term.
The World Health Organization made it clear that they cut ties with any employee identified as a perpetrator in the report, with some people being barred from any future employment altogether.
Furthermore, if the victims give consent, WHO is willing to cooperate with law enforcement to criminally investigate the situations therein.
In other World Health Organization news this week, the group is trying once again to try and figure out the origins of COVID-19 by putting together an investigation team. WHO tried pursuing this in the past but came up short of definitive answers with their efforts.
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