WHO Paid Sexual Abuse Victims U.S.$250 Each In DR Congo - Report

Dr. Gaya Gamhewage, the physician in charge of the World Health Organization's attempts to stop sexual abuse, went to the DR Congo in March 2023 to deal with the largest-known sex scandal in the history of the U.N. health agency: the mistreatment of more than 100 indigenous women by WHO employees and others amid a fatal Ebola outbreak, according to an Associated Press report, writes Jerry Chifamba for AllAfrica.

WHO reportedly gave U.S.$250 apiece to at least 104 women in the DR Congo who said they were sexually assaulted or taken advantage of by authorities. The women were not given the money randomly. They were required to finish training programmes meant to assist them in initiating "income-generating activities."

About one-third of the confirmed survivors were "impossible to locate," the World Health Organization said in a classified paper last month.

Approximately twelve women turned down the WHO offer.