Terrified, disgusted, ashamed: The women speaking out about aid workers’ abuse in the Congo

Some 51 women said aid workers propositioned them, forced them to have sex in exchange for a job or fired them when they refused. Robert Flummerfelt and Nellie Peyton tell their stories

'Despite our best efforts, cases of sexual exploitation and abuse in the DRC remain grossly under-reported' (The New Humanitarian/Robert Flummerfelt)

So many women were affected by this,” the 44-year-old woman says. “I can’t think of someone who worked in the response who didn't have to offer something.” She is one of more than 50 women who have accused Ebola aid workers from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and leading NGOs of sexual exploitation and abuse in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She told reporters from non-profit newsroom The New Humanitarian and the Thomson Reuters Foundation that in order to get a job, she had sex with a man who said he was a WHO worker. Like many of the women who have come forward, she is speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

In interviews, 51 women – many of whose accounts were backed up by aid agency drivers and local NGO workers – recounted multiple incidents of abuse during the 2018-20 Ebola crisis, mainly by men who said they were international workers. The majority of the women said numerous men had either propositioned them, forced them to have sex in exchange for a job or terminated their contracts when they refused.  

Some women were cooks, cleaners and community outreach workers hired on short-term contracts, earning $50 to $100 a month – more than twice the normal wage. One woman was an Ebola survivor seeking psychological help. At least two women said they became pregnant as a result of their abuse. Women said they were plied with drinks, others ambushed in offices and hospitals, and some locked in rooms by men who promised jobs or threatened to fire them if they did not comply.