WeeklySA_AdminBy Monk Nkomo
Scores of women and girls – some as young as 13 years of age – who were sexually abused or exploited and others impregnated by senior employees of the World Health Organisation (WHO), during the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo between 2018 -2020, have reacted angrily at the 250 US dollars that have been offered to each of them by the health agency.
To add salt to injury, those who accepted the offer were required to complete training courses in some businesses intended to help them start what the WHO described as ‘’ income generating activities.’’ According to a recent internal confidential WHO report, Dr. Gaya Gamhewage, who travelled to the DRC in March this year and leads the organisation’s efforts to prevent sexual abuse, the payments appear to try to circumvent the United Nation’s stated policy that it did not pay reparations by including the money in what it calls a complete package.
One of the victims who was interviewed by Gamhewage, said after she was sexually abused, she gave birth to a baby with a malformation that required special medical treatment, meaning more costs for the young mother in one of the world’s poorest countries.
Two of the victims who were met by Gamhewage, told her that what they most wanted was for the perpetrators of these crimes to be brought to account so they could not harm anyone else again.
The WHO was rocked by the worst sex scandal when some of their employees, including a doctor, were implicated in the sexual abuse of nearly 110 women and girls during the deadly Ebola outbreak in the DRC between August 2018 and June 2020. The outbreak was recorded in the provinces of North and South Kivu and in Ituri. The pandemic claimed a total of 2299 lives.
Some of the WHO staff members who were deployed to help the victims, instead went on the rampage to sexually abuse vulnerable women and girls – the very people they were supposed to help – in a sex for jobs scandal that tarnished the image of the health agency.
According to the internal WHO report, the organization paid 250 US dollars each to most of the more than 100 victims. The amount per victim is less than a single day’s expenses for some UN officials in the DRC. The amount also covers typical living expenses for less than four months in a country where many people survived on less than 2,15 US dollars a day. The WHO , according to the internal report, also helped defray medical costs for seventeen children born as a result of sexual exploitation and abuse.
Most victims however, lashed at the small amount offered and accused the WHO of not doing enough to compensate the victims. Alphonsine, (34), said she was pressured into having sex with a WHO official in exchange for a job as an infection control worker with the Ebola response team in the eastern Congo city of Beni, an epicenter of the outbreak of the outbreak. She confirmed receipt of 250 US dollars from the WHO but only after she was asked to take a baking course to obtain it.
‘’ The money helped at the time, but it was not enough.’’ She later went bankrupt. She would have preferred to receive a plot of land and enough money to start her own business.
Another woman, who was sexually abused and impregnated by a WHO doctor, negotiated compensation that the health agency officials agreed on. The deal included a plot of land and health care. The doctor also agreed to pay 100 US dollars a month until the baby was born in a deal ‘’ to protect the integrity and reputation of WHO.’’
Audia (24), told the news agency AP, that she was impregnated by a WHO official who forced her to have sex with her to get a job during the Ebola outbreak. She now has a five-year-old daughter as a result. She received 250 US dollars from WHO – after being asked to take courses in tailoring and baking – which she says is insufficient. ‘’ I cannot put my trust in WHO anymore. When they abandon you in such difficulties and leave you without doing anything, it is irresponsible’’.
Despite these efforts to try and appease the victims of sexually abuse, the WHO remains a distrusted organization in the DRC because of its failure to bring the perpetrators to book. The health agency struggles with holding perpetrators of sexual abuse and exploitation to account for their deeds in the DRC despite the identification of 83 culprits including 21 WHO staffers by a panel commissioned by WHO itself.
‘’ In May 2021, an AP investigation revealed that senior WHO management was told of sexual exploitation during the agency’s efforts to curb Ebola even as the abuse was happening , but did little to stop it. No senior managers, including some who were aware of the abuse during the outbreak, were fired.’’
After years of pressure from Congolese authorities, the WHO internal documents revealed that it had shared information with the authorities about 16 alleged perpetrators of sexual abuse and exploitation who were linked to the WHO during the Ebola outbreak.
Denise (31), who was coerced into having sex with a WHO staffer to get a job during the Ebola outbreak, accused the health agency of having failed to discipline their staff members implicated in this scandal. ‘’ They promised to show us evidence that has been taken care of, but there has been no follow-up.’’
The WHO has since reported that five of their staff members had been dismissed for sexual misconduct.
Gamhewage conceded that the WHO had not done enough to help the victims of sexual abuse. The WHO, she added, would ask survivors directly what further support they needed.
Many Congolese women who were sexually abused or exploited had still not received any payments. The WHO said in their internal report that about a third of the known victims could not be traced and about a dozen other victims had rejected their offer of 250 US dollars each.
