WHO workers persuade Congolese women to have sex during Ebola outbreak
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Residents of DR Congo have reported sexual harassment. Almost 30 women became pregnant as a result, most of them were forced to have an abortion.
WHO workers were implicated in a number of sexual crimes in DR Congo in 2018-2020. To this conclusion came an independent commission of inquiry at WHO, informs Hromadske on Wednesday, September 29.
In particular, more than 50 women in DR Congo have reported sexual harassment by international organizations and workers who have traveled to the country to fight the Ebola outbreak. As a result, 29 victims became pregnant, but most of them were forced to have an abortion.
In total, the investigators identified 83 involved in the claims, of which 21 collaborated with WHO.
As the women explained, they were drunk with alcohol and then secretly taken to hospitals, where they were forced to have sex.
Also, some of the workers of humanitarian missions in DR Congo told the WHO commission that they were harassed and raped, promising to fire them if they refused, or vice versa – offering a higher salary or a better job if they agreed.
In turn, WHO Director General Tedros Adan Ghebreyesus apologized to the victims of harassment. According to him, the perpetrators of harassment, whose identities were identified, were forever banned from cooperation with the organization; in particular, contracts with four employees were terminated ahead of schedule. He added that he plans to pass the information on to the Commission in the DR Congo and the states where the harassment comes from.
Previously, the Congolese authorities claimed that they would bring their guilty citizens to justice.
Note that the UN has been struggling for a long time with the problem of sexual crimes committed by their employees. In 2019, the organization recorded 175 allegations of harassment or rape, of which, as of July 2020, more than 140 were investigated.
Recall that earlier the WHO called the cause of the new outbreak of the Ebola virus in Africa… Since January, 30 cases of Ebola infection have been recorded on the continent: 18 in Guinea and 12 in DR Congo.
New epidemic. Ebola scares the world again
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