The World Health Organization (WHO) announced Tuesday, September 29, that it had opened an investigation into charges of sexual assault linked to the fight against the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The WHO said its employees were "outraged" by recent allegations of sexual assault by people claiming to work for it, during a recent Ebola outbreak.

"The actions allegedly perpetrated by individuals identifying themselves as working for the WHO are not acceptable and will be the subject of serious investigations," said the United Nations health agency, in a statement.

"We do not tolerate any behavior of this type among our employees, our subcontractors or our partners", she affirmed, recalling that she had "a policy of zero tolerance against sexual assault".

"Anyone involved will have to face the consequences of their actions, up to outright dismissal."

The WHO did not specify the nature of the accusations, but its statements come shortly after the publication of an investigation by The New Humanitarian, an NGO, in which more than 50 women accused WHO and NGO workers involved in the fight against Ebola from sexual exploitation.

In particular, they were offered sex in exchange for the promise of a job.

The WHO said its director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, had ordered a thorough investigation into the accusations.

A new Ebola epidemic 

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is fighting a new Ebola epidemic, the eleventh to hit the country, which has caused 50 deaths since June.

The previous one had caused 2,287 deaths for 3,470 cases between August 2018 and June 2020. A billion dollars have been invested to fight against this epidemic.

Only the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, which occurred between 2013 and 2016, claimed more lives, more than 11,000 for some 29,000 confirmed cases.

With AFP

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