WHO aid workers offered ‘jobs for sex’ during DRC Ebola outbreak
More than 50 women allege abuse by men who said they were international aid providers

Women in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were exploited by World Health Organization (WHO) workers running a “sex for jobs racket” during the 2018 to 2020 Ebola outbreak, an investigation has found.
Staff in the DRC, including doctors, are accussed of demanding sex in exchange for short-term positions as cooks, cleaners and outreach workers, an investigation by the New Humanitarian and the Thomson Reuters Foundation has revealed.
The accounts of more than 50 women, many of which “were backed up by aid agency drivers and local NGO workers”, describe “multiple incidents of abuse, mainly by men who said they were international workers”, The Guardian says.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
“The number and similarity of many of the accounts from women in the eastern city of Beni suggests the practice was widespread”, the paper continues, with UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres calling for the allegations to be “investigated fully”.
The WHO said in a statement that the allegations would be “robustly investigated”, and that “anyone identified as being involved will be held to account and face serious consequences, including immediate dismissal”.
“The betrayal of people in the communities we serve is reprehensible,” the WHO added.
Thirty of the women described sexual exploitation by men who said they were working for the WHO, while others said their abusers claimed to work for the Congolese health ministry. Many of the men refused to use condoms for sex that was described as a “passport to employment”, the women said.
Imogen Foulkes, a BBC journalist based in Geneva, writes that criticism of the WHO has mounted during the coronavirus pandemic, however, “up until now criticism… has been mainly from the US, and the organisation has been comforted by support, both moral and financial, from many other countries.
“That support may now be shaken, just at the moment the world needs a global public health body beyond reproach,” she adds. The UK last week increased its contribution to the organisation to £340m, becoming its third-largest donor in the process.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Joe Evans is the world news editor at TheWeek.co.uk. He joined the team in 2019 and held roles including deputy news editor and acting news editor before moving into his current position in early 2021. He is a regular panellist on The Week Unwrapped podcast, discussing politics and foreign affairs.
Before joining The Week, he worked as a freelance journalist covering the UK and Ireland for German newspapers and magazines. A series of features on Brexit and the Irish border got him nominated for the Hostwriter Prize in 2019. Prior to settling down in London, he lived and worked in Cambodia, where he ran communications for a non-governmental organisation and worked as a journalist covering Southeast Asia. He has a master’s degree in journalism from City, University of London, and before that studied English Literature at the University of Manchester.
-
Book reviews: 'America, América: A New History of the New World' and 'Sister, Sinner: The Miraculous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson'
Feature A historian tells a new story of the Americas and the forgotten story of a pioneering preacher
-
Another messaging app used by the White House is in hot water
The Explainer TeleMessage was seen being used by former National Security Adviser Mike Waltz
-
AI hallucinations are getting worse
In the Spotlight And no one knows why it is happening
-
What happens if tensions between India and Pakistan boil over?
TODAY'S BIG QUESTION As the two nuclear-armed neighbors rattle their sabers in the wake of a terrorist attack on the contested Kashmir region, experts worry that the worst might be yet to come
-
Why Russia removed the Taliban's terrorist designation
The Explainer Russia had designated the Taliban as a terrorist group over 20 years ago
-
Inside the Israel-Turkey geopolitical dance across Syria
THE EXPLAINER As Syria struggles in the wake of the Assad regime's collapse, its neighbors are carefully coordinating to avoid potential military confrontations
-
'Like a sound from hell': Serbia and sonic weapons
The Explainer Half a million people sign petition alleging Serbian police used an illegal 'sound cannon' to disrupt anti-government protests
-
The arrest of the Philippines' former president leaves the country's drug war in disarray
In the Spotlight Rodrigo Duterte was arrested by the ICC earlier this month
-
Ukrainian election: who could replace Zelenskyy?
The Explainer Donald Trump's 'dictator' jibe raises pressure on Ukraine to the polls while the country is under martial law
-
Why Serbian protesters set off smoke bombs in parliament
THE EXPLAINER Ongoing anti-corruption protests erupted into full view this week as Serbian protesters threw the country's legislature into chaos
-
The catastrophic conflict looming in the heart of Africa
In the Spotlight Showdown between DR Congo and Rwanda has been a long time coming