More than a hundred women in Congo were harassed, abused and raped by nearly two dozen WHO staff during the Ebola mission from 2018 to 2020. Which includes minors also. Now compensation amounting to $250 per victim started being paid. However, the perpetrators were not prosecuted. Justice? It looks different.
During the Ebola outbreak in West Africa a few years ago, hundreds of WHO staff were in the region. According to official information, these should monitor the situation and prevent the spread of the deadly virus to wider sections of the population. But instead, some WHO staff apparently preferred to deal with attacks on local populations. Especially young women and girls.
This scam came to light two years ago, even major news agencies reported on it and a UN report was also prepared on it. Accordingly, WHO senior management also knew about the sexual assaults and did virtually nothing to stop them. Even WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who had visited Congo 14 times at the time, did not intervene. opposite of this: He even publicly praised one of the alleged rapists for his “heroic act.”
The UN report linked above identifies one of the victims as “Jolian”, aged 13. Other women say their attackers did not use contraception, resulting in multiple pregnancies. Some women were forced to have abortions by their rapists. In the case of “Joliane,” in April 2019, a WHO driver stopped by the roadside in the town of Mangina, where she was selling phone cards, and offered her a ride home. “Instead, he took her to a hotel where she said the man raped her,” the report states. Other women were forced to have sex in order to get “permission” to work for the organization.
But the highlight of the whole affair is the manner in which the young women have now been persuaded to pay ridiculous compensation. A new report from the AP, citing internal WHO documents, shows that a total of 104 rape victims were given “compensation” of about $250. Apparently it was thought that this was a huge amount of money in a country where many people lived on less than two dollars a day. Additionally, the women had to complete a training course that helped them begin “income-generating activities” before receiving the money, as the UN does not pay reparations.
and that’s not all. Many victims do not receive any money at all. According to reports, almost a third of known rape victims (who knows how many women never even filed a complaint…) can no longer be traced. A dozen other women declined the modest offer. Some women told the news agency that this money would not even come close to getting them justice. The rapists were not even prosecuted and will likely continue to go to developing countries for “help” from the United Nations and World Health Organization in the future,
Coincidentally, this is also the organization that wants to be given sweeping powers with the controversial global “pandemic pact.” But if justice has not been attempted even in cases like Congo, what should it be like in future so-called global emergencies? Will WHO staff force women and girls to have sex with impunity so they can go to the supermarket, even during the new lockdown?
(TagstoTranslate)Ebola(T)Compensation(T)Congo(T)Abuse(T)UN(T)Rape(T)WHO
