By RFPosted on 08-08-2019Modified on 08-08-2019 at 01:01
Practitioners are suspected of being involved in the assassination last April of a Cameroonian epidemiologist doctor of WHO, Dr. Richard Valery Mouzoko. They were arrested on Tuesday, August 6, but the military justice only revealed it yesterday. They are being prosecuted for "terrorism and criminal conspiracy".
Since the beginning of the investigation, 52 people have been arrested, according to Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-Baptiste Kumbu Ngoma, military prosecutor of Butembo. About twenty of them admitted to having participated in the attack of April 19th. It was during their confession that the names of the sponsors were released.
" According to the testimony, these doctors wanted to get rid of external providers in charge of the response to Ebola, " says the military prosecutor. A fourth, now abroad, is also suspected of being a sponsor.
Seals by RFI, relatives of three defendants denounce a " conspiracy ". According to them, the arrested doctors had been trained by the WHO, worked with the murdered doctor and had proposed an alternative plan of response to Ebola, more favorable according to them ... to the expectations of the populations.
→ Read also: One year of Ebola in the DRC: the challenges of a controversial response
In a letter addressed to the mayor of Butembo, the order of doctors expressed his indignation at these arrests. " Their absence hurts our health system ," says Dr. Kalima Nzanzu, president of the Butembo Medical Order Unit. The corporation requests their provisional release within 48 hours, otherwise it threatens to trigger a general strike.
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