By Sonia RolleyPosted on 09-08-2019Modified on 09-08-2019 at 22:18
Congolese military justice accuses four Butembo doctors of being among the "moral authors" of the assassination of the Cameroonian doctor Richard Mouzoko of the World Health Organization. Three of them are detained. The local doctors' order is threatening a "dry strike", including transit and treatment centers for the Ebola virus disease. Investigation.
" We expect the provincial council of the order of doctors, " says Dr. Kalima Nzanzu, president of the local council of Butembo. It was in this locality in eastern Congo that " Dr. Richard " was killed on April 19, 2019 during an attack on the health center Horizon attributed to alleged Mayi-Mayi. This Cameroonian doctor was new to Butembo, deployed only a few weeks ago on behalf of the World Health Organization (WHO). The city had been under fire for almost two months, its death was the climax of a violence towards a coordination of the response inherited from previous epidemics that occurred in other parts of the Congo. West Africa. These armed groups accused these agents of having " created " Ebola, of enriching themselves on the backs of the local population, they had multiplied the raids against the centers of treatment and other structures of the response against an epidemic considered since the end of July as a " global emergency " by WHO .
The threat of a dry strike in the Ebola zone
Dr. Kalima Nzanzu is waiting. But he and his colleagues have planned to meet this Saturday at 9am to evaluate the follow-up to give their notice of strike. The Butembo Medical Council has threatened a " dry strike " within 48 hours by a statement dated August 6, 2019 if the military justice does not release " provisional release " three local doctors " essential to the response " arrested as part of the murder investigation. All health facilities will be involved in Butembo and in the region, " not to mention the transit and treatment centers for Ebola ." This is what their colleagues in Goma would like to avoid in the midst of an Ebola outbreak that has been going on for more than a year. The theft of the United Nations Mission in Congo which was to take them to Goma in Butembo had to be postponed to this Saturday, August 10, 2019. " We hear them, but we will do the inventory of our side ", insists the Dr. Kalima Nzanzu.
The emotion is strong in Butembo where one speaks about " new conspiracy against the Nande ", one of the main ethnic groups living in the affected areas, or " against the local health system ". The four doctors, sons of the country, are well known in this region, as the coordination of the response. " Doctors Luendo and Mundana were in the same investigative team that sent the first six samples to Kinshasa on July 29, 2018, which turned out to be positive, " they say in their entourage. It is these levies that would have allowed the Congolese Ministry of Health to declare the outbreak on 1 August. They were, according to their entourage, a group of local doctors who would have proposed an alternative plan of response " which had to better take into account the interests of the communities ". For the local council of the order, with these arrests, " key services " are " beheaded ", such as blood transfusion services, infection prevention and control. Its leaders do not believe in the responsibility of their colleagues and say they have increased the number of arrests with the authorities.
" Doctors who have sought to destroy the response "
The Congolese military court said it had arrested 54 people in connection with the attacks on the Butembo response, of which 24 have " confessed ", including one who shot Dr. Richard Mouzoko. For the general auditor of the army, number 1 Congolese military prosecutor, General Timothé Mukuntu, the case is serious: " We are checking everything, but we can not keep in the response of doctors who have sought to destroy the riposte ". A source in the Congolese military justice said: " two Mai-Mai leaders and two locally recruited agents of the response, all arrested have accused two doctors ." They would have given the names of Drs. John Paul Mundama Witende and Gilbert Kasereka, probably two of the best known local figures in the response, even accused of giving money to the Mai-Mai to attack the center Horizon. It would be the latter, Gilbert Kasereka, who allegedly "denounced" the other two doctors, Hyppolite Kisako Sangala and Dr. Aurélien Luendo Paluku, for having participated in meetings " aimed at getting the strangers away from the response, all those who did not come of Butembo ".
In the investigation file, the military prosecutor's office mentions two meetings, one " preparatory " in December and a second in January where these doctors would have decided to act. Its leader, General Timothée Mukuntu confirms: " During these meetings, according to the testimony of Dr. Kasereka, they felt that there were inequalities of treatment between local staff and foreigners in this region and that they had to to send these foreign doctors away . " The boss of the Congolese military floor ensures that his services have tried to be understanding. " We also had cases of doctors who, because they feared for their safety, gave a little money to the Mai-Mai, " he says, assuring that all these practitioners had been "relaxed". given the context and the security situation ".
A " black hand " to " counter the response to communities "
These Mai-Mai groups control affected areas in which the agents of the riposte attempt to surrender. In Butembo's civil society, an activist pointed to the arrest of two ANR collaborators, including a driver in the attacks on the response, as proof of the complexity of the relations between these groups and the "milieu". One of them, nephew of one of the armed group leaders arrested, asked him to assassinate the bishop of Butembo for his support of the riposte. " It's true that there was a lot of anger against the riposte, but there was also a lot of manipulation, " insists this activist.
On the side of the defense team of the four doctors, we are overwhelmed by everything, but we refuse " at this stage of education " to speak publicly. A lawyer denounces an " irregular procedure ", with long-term detentions on mere " appearance warrants ". Dr. Mundana, one of the main perpetrators, was " absent " from Butembo, he was traveling to Nairobi for family reasons. Today, according to this lawyer, he would be outside the country. But like his colleagues, " he continued to work within the response " after the death of Dr. Richard Mouzoko and had "no conflict" with the victim. " It will still be necessary for the military prosecutor to explain to us the link between these meetings and the murder four months later, " he added.
Even the information on the content of the meetings referred to by the prosecution is disputed. " There were four doctors, eight health workers and representatives from the provincial health directorate at one of these meetings and we want to make us believe that it was a center of operations against the response ." According to the defense, during a first confrontation between Dr. Kasereka and his colleagues this week, the doctor " did not repeat the same accusations " as those contained in the investigation file and " no other accuser would have been presented ".
The other three doctors deny that they have attempted to destabilize the response. A family member acknowledges that there is " discontent among local health personnel ", including among these doctors, on inequality of treatment and more broadly on the strategy of the response to local communities. " But they are established doctors and recognized, not idiots who think get anything by attacking health centers or foreign doctors . "Insists this close to doctors incriminated. He concluded with a sigh: " To believe that there is a black hand that seeks to weaken the response and to oppose communities ."
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