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According to the Thomson Reuters Foundation and The Humanitarian, no less than 70 women, mostly housekeepers, were forced to sleep with those responsible for the response in Beni and Butembo. The first cases were convicted in September last year in Beni. Today, it is in Butembo that the two media gathered testimonies about the same type of abuse. Several organizations, especially international ones, are accused. What have they done to respond to them since September last year?
First on the government side, we promised an investigation. An inter-ministerial commission would be set up under the auspices of the Ministry of Health with the participation of the Ministries of Human Rights and Gender.
But in the end, the raids on the ground did not take place in this context, admits the former Minister of Human Rights. His successor, Me Albert-Fabrice Puela, promises RFI today that he will investigate this case. The transfer of files, given their number, has not yet been completed.
Some of the accused had been employed by the Congolese state, others by international organizations such as the World Health Organization.
The WHO explains that since September an independent committee has been recruited and that investigators are currently on site verifying these allegations. And according to the Thomson Reuters Foundation and The Humanitarian, Oxfam has fired two of its North Kivu officials on charges of sexual assault.
There is what can be considered an abuse of authority. The women we spoke to were in a vulnerable situation, they said they did not have much choice.
Ange Kasongo, journalist who investigated for the Thomson Reuters Foundation
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