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Too little too late, says victims of sex abuse

Too little too late, says victims of sex abuse

RODOLPHE MUKUNDI and ROBERT FLUMMERFELT NEARLY two dozen survivors of the UN’s largest known sexual abuse scandal say the World Health Organization has been slow to make good on promises of support, and that when assistance has come it has been too little to rebuild their lives.  After suffering abuse during the 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, many women who were promised support in 2021 received one-time payments of $250 – the rough equivalent of two days’ worth of per diems for UN staff.  “I was happy, but this is a very small amount,” said one woman…
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WHO sex abuse scandal: Victims say help is too little too late

WHO sex abuse scandal: Victims say help is too little too late

RODOLPHE MUKUNDI and ROBERT FLUMMERFELT NEARLY two dozen survivors of the UN’s largest known sexual abuse scandal say the World Health Organization has been slow to make good on promises of support, and that when assistance has come it has been too little to rebuild their lives.  After suffering abuse during the 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, many women who were promised support in 2021 received one-time payments of $250 – the rough equivalent of two days’ worth of per diems for UN staff.  “I was happy, but this is a very small amount,” said one woman…
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Inside Story: How we broke the Ebola sexual abuse scandal

Inside Story: How we broke the Ebola sexual abuse scandal

PAISLEY DODDS EARLY last year during a trip to the Ebola outbreak zones in the Democratic Republic of Congo, we were tipped off that aid workers might be sexually abusing and exploiting women. “Oh, they love our ladies,” reporter Robert Flummerfelt was told in March 2019 at a bar in Butembo, one of two hubs for workers trying to contain the virus in Congo’s northeast. “They arrive in military convoys to take the sick for treatment, and they are always taking the women.” Even though the practice seemed well known, we were warned few women would talk. “The victims of…
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