With a vaccine of demonstrated efficacy and four experimental treatments available to healthcare practitioners, the conditions should have made the 10th Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo one of the shortest and least deadly in the history of the disease. And yet, against all expectations the end of the epidemic was not announced until June 26, 2020, almost two years after the launch of a humanitarian operation that cost the staggering sum of one billion dollars, more than three times the country’s annual health budget. Of the 3,470 cases, 2,287 died, a case fatality rate of 66% making this Ebola epidemic the second deadliest after the West African outbreak of 2014-2016, when no treatment was available. A bitter medical and human defeat.
Led by the Congolese government with the support of the World Health Organization (WHO), the international response to the epidemic in DRC, known locally as the “Riposte,” never stopped highlighting the presence of various armed groups in the region to explain the setbacks suffered by its teams in the field. And for good reasons: at least ten people working for the “Riposte” were killed, teams carrying out the burials of Ebola victims were attacked and Ebola treatment centers were set on fire. In all, more than 300 attacks against humanitarian actors have been recorded, according to WHO.
But is that the whole story? One event in particular seems to contradict this narrative. On April 19, 2019, Richard Valery Mouzoko, a Cameroonian doctor working for WHO was assassinated in broad daylight during a meeting with his teams at a hospital in Butembo. A targeted murder, committed by three armed men in civilian clothes, who did not shoot anyone else in the room and left before the police arrived. In the months that followed, an investigation carried out by the Congolese military justice identified a group of men linked to militia movements, but also and more surprisingly, four Congolese doctors working for the “Riposte”, accused of being behind the murder. An inside job that complicates the narrative of a humanitarian response under the crossfire of hostile armed groups.
Through solving this murder mystery, I set out to answer not only the question of who wanted doctor Mouzoko dead and why, but why the response had struggled to put an end to the outbreak. Through complex characters challenging our assumptions about stigmatized communities, I explore why a focus on biomedical solutions and a top-down approach impeded the response’s ability to manage the epidemic, and expose grave allegations, including:
-WHO paid an average of $620,000 per month to Congolese security forces, including the police, military but also the intelligence services (known for some of the most serious human rights violations in the country) without following proper UN procedures.
-The Congolese coordinators of the response paid and enrolled armed groups fighters in the response, with the knowledge and cooperation of the WHO coordinator in Butembo.
-The response routinely used force and coerced Ebola “suspects” to bring them to Ebola Treatment Centers.
-The response routinely used armed forces escorts, in breach of humanitarian rules.
-Corruption and conflict of interest was widespread. For example, some employees or contractors in a position to hire others would force their subordinates to give them a percentage of their salaries. For women, sexual favors were often expected.
Article 2 to 6 have been submitted as per the award’s rules.