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world news Diaranson 29 september 2021

Panel finds 80 alleged abuse cases tied to WHO’s Congo work

(AP) — Twenty-one work- rapists for his heroic work.
ers for the World Health “Instead, he took her to a ho-
Organization in Congo tel where she says she was “It is unconscionable that this
have been accused of sexu- raped by this person,” ac- should ever have happened,
ally abusing people during cording to the report. and the sheer scale of the
a Ebola outbreak, a WHO- sexual assaults is shocking,”
commissioned panel said The panel recommended Gostin said.
Tuesday in a report that WHO provide reparations to
identified 83 alleged per- victims and set up DNA test- The panel’s investigators said
petrators connected to the ing to establish paternity and they identified 83 alleged per-
2018-2020 mission. enable women to assert their petrators of sexual abuse and
rights and those of their chil- exploitation, both Congo-
The panel released its find- dren. lese nationals and foreigners.
ings months after an As- In 21 cases, the review team
sociated Press investigation Director-General Tedros established with certainty
found senior WHO manage- Adhanom Ghebreyesus ap- that the alleged abusers were
ment was informed of mul- pointed the panel’s co-chairs WHO employees during the
tiple abuse claims in 2019 but to investigate last October Ebola response.
failed to stop the harassment after media reports claimed Webb, who directs the office Women, a women’s organi-
and even promoted one of unnamed humanitarian offi- The AP published evidence of internal oversight. zation that works to coun-
the managers involved. cials sexually abused women in May showing that Dr. Mi- ter rape and sexual abuse of
during the Ebola outbreak chel Yao, a senior WHO of- When informed of Ngandu’s women in Congo, applauded
“This is the biggest finding of that began in Congo in 2018. ficial overseeing the Congo alleged misconduct, Mlitzke WHO for punishing staff-
sexual abuse perpetrated dur- outbreak response was in- and Webb attempted to de- ers involved in the abuse al-
ing a single U.N. initiative in He called the report “harrow- formed in writing of multiple termine if the woman accus- legations but said more was
one area or one country dur- ing” reading and a “dark day” sex abuse allegations. Yao was ing the doctor of impregnat- needed.
ing the time-bound period of for the UN. health agency. later promoted and recently ing her should be designated
a U.N. response effort,” said Tedros said four people have headed WHO’s response to as a “beneficiary,” given her “WHO must also think about
Paula Donovan, co-director been fired and two placed on the Ebola outbreak in Guin- legal contract with Ngandu. reparation for the women
of the Code Blue Campaign, administrative leave as a re- ea, which ended in June. Webb said no investigation who were traumatized by
which is campaigning to end sult of the scandal, but he did was needed since the is- the rapes and the dozens of
sexual exploitation by U.N. not name them. WHO doctor Jean-Paul sue had been settled with an children who were born with
peacekeepers. Ngandu and two other agen- “amicable agreement.” unwanted pregnancies as a
The WHO chief also de- cy officials also signed a con- result of the rapes,” she said.
Panel member Malick clined to say if he would tract promising to buy land Shekinah, a young Congolese
Coulibaly said investigators consider resigning; Germany, for a young woman Ngan- woman who accepted an of- Sophie Harman, a profes-
uncovered a total of nine France and several other Eu- du allegedly impregnated; fer to have sex with WHO’s sor of international politics
rape allegations. The women ropean countries nominated Ngandu told the AP he was Boubacar Diallo in exchange at Queen Mary University
interviewed said their attack- Tedros for a second term last pressured to do so to protect for a job, said she hoped he London, said she was con-
ers used no birth control, re- week. WHO’s reputation. would be sanctioned by the cerned the allegations involv-
sulting in some pregnancies. U.N. health agency and ing more than 80 suspects
Some women said their rap- Lawrence Gostin, chair of The panel said that during its barred from working for were only the beginning.
ists had forced them to have global health law at George- interview with Tedros, he said WHO again.
abortions, Coulibaly said. town University, said he he was made aware of the sex “More cases are bound to
wouldn’t call for Tedros to abuse allegations when they “I would like him and other come forward across the
The youngest of the alleged resign unless he knew of, or were revealed in the press doctors who will be charged world,” Harman said, calling
victims, identified in the re- could have reasonably known and had not heard of the inci- to be punished severely so for the focus to shift to help-
port only as “Jolianne” and of such abuse. dent involving Ngandu until that it will serve as a lesson ing abuse survivors. “This
believed to be 13, recounted the AP published its story. to other untouchable doctors requires both prosecution
that a WHO driver stopped Tedros traveled to Congo 14 of the WHO,” said Shekinah, of perpetrators, but full ac-
on a roadside in the town of times during the outbreak, The panel’s report also fault- who declined to give her last countability on the part of
Mangina where she was sell- repeatedly said he was per- ed WHO’s Andreas Mlitzke, name for fear of retribution. WHO leadership who knew
ing phone cards in April 2019 sonally responsible for the head of the agency’s compli- about the rumors and re-
and offered to give her a ride response and publicly com- ance, risk management and Julie Londo, a member of the ports, and yet took years to
home. mended one of the alleged ethics divisions, and David Congolese Union of Media act on this issue.”

5 intel officers killed in shootout with militants in Sudan

(AP) — Five intelligence suspected Islamic State ities said. tionalities or further details. tocrat Omar al-Bashir amid
officers were killed in a group militants in Sudan’s a public uprising against his
shootout Tuesday with capital Khartoum, author- The General Intelligence Prime Minister Abdalla three-decade rule.
Agency said in a statement the Hamdok mourned the deaths
suspected militants opened of the five officers. Militant attacks were rare in
fire on forces who raided Sudan, a country that hosted
their hideout in the Gabra Tuesday’s violence came a Osama bin Laden in the early
neighborhood in southern week after authorities said years of his jihadi movement
Khartoum. It said five were they foiled a coup attempt that led to the creation of al-
killed and an officer was also that has since increased ten- Qaida. The East African na-
wounded in the raid. sions between the generals tion was on the U.S. list of
and civilians in the transi- countries backing terrorism
The GIA said forces arrested tional government. until December.
11 suspected militants and
were chasing four others who The developments under- In March last year, Hamdok
managed to flee during the score the fragility of Sudan’s said he survived a “terror at-
shootout. The statement said path to democracy, more than tack” after an explosion and
the suspects were foreigners two years after the military’s gunfire targeted his motor-
but did not reveal their na- overthrow of longtime au- cade in Khartoum.