Kinshasa (AFP)

Former Congolese health minister Oly Ilunga arrested in Kinshasa on Saturday is suspected of embezzlement of more than $ 4 million for Ebola control in DR Congo, his country's leaders said on Sunday. lawyers.

"The police blame him for having diverted the total sum of about 4.3 million US dollars made available by the DRC's public treasury to fight against Ebola," write his lawyers Guy Kabeya and Willy Ngashi, in a statement.

According to the defense, "more than 1.9 million US dollars of this sum were disbursed in one month after the resignation of Dr. Ilunga so that he can not answer in any way".

"For the rest, or $ 2.4 million (...) accounting documents attest that this sum was used exclusively for the purpose of fighting the Ebola virus disease," the statement added.

Dr. Ilunga was taken into custody in Kinshasa on Saturday. The police said it would be presented Monday at the public prosecutor near the court of cassation. Targeted by a judicial inquiry. He was arrested and heard at the end of August by the law before being banned from leaving the territory of the DRC.

The police accused him of wanting to leave the country illegally through Congo-Brazzaville "for the purpose of evading prosecution".

"Dr. Ilunga has never tried to leave the country to win Congo-Brazzaville," responded his defense.

Appointed Minister of Health by former President Joseph Kabila in December 2016, Ilunga resigned on July 22, 2019, in the midst of the Ebola crisis that has plagued the DRC since August 2018.

He felt disavowed by the new president, Felix Tshisekedi, who had removed the conduct of the Ebola response. Mr. Tshisekedi entrusted the coordination of the fight against Ebola to Jean-Jacques Muyembe, director of the Congolese Institute of Biomedical Research of Kinshasa (INRB).

Prior to his resignation, Ilunga also opposed the introduction of a second Ebola vaccine, produced by Belgian laboratory Janssen, a subsidiary of American Johnson & Johnson.

The epidemic that currently affects three provinces in eastern DRC has made 2,071 deaths for 3,084 registered cases, according to the latest report released Friday.

This tenth Ebola outbreak on Congolese soil since 1976 is the deadliest.

© 2019 AFP