Diplomats, Donors Concerned About Sex Abuse Reports at WHO

LONDON - British, European and American diplomats and donors have voiced serious concerns about how the World Health Organization handled sex abuse allegations involving its own staff during an outbreak of Ebola in Congo, as reported this week by The Associated Press.

On Tuesday, the AP published an investigation documenting that senior WHO management was informed of multiple sex abuse allegations involving at least two of its doctors during the epidemic in 2018. A notarized contract obtained by the AP showed that two WHO staffers signed off on an agreement between WHO's Dr. Jean-Paul Ngandu and a young woman he allegedly impregnated in Congo. In it, Ngandu promised to pay the young woman money, cover her pregnancy costs and buy her a plot of land. The contract was made "to protect the integrity and reputation of the organization," Ngandu said. "The U.K. has a zero-tolerance approach when it comes to sexual exploitation and harassment — and that extends to all international organizations that we fund," said Simon Manley, the U.K.'s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva. "We are speaking with WHO and other major donors as a matter of urgency to establish the facts." Britain is WHO's second-biggest donor, after the U.S.