Aid workers for charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) used prostitutes in Africa, a BBC report said on Thursday, citing anonymous whistle-blowers. The NGO said it took the allegations seriously but said it had been unable to confirm the claims and urged anyone with information to come forward.
The allegations follow a crisis at British charity Oxfam over claims that its workers used prostitutes while stationed in Haiti.
‘Senior people involved’
A former employee based in MSF’s London office told the BBC she had seen a senior staff member bring girls back to MSF accommodation while posted in Kenya.
She questioned what the charity knew, saying: “There’s definitely a feeling that certain predatory men were seen as too big to fail.”
Another woman employee who worked with HIV patients in central Africa said the use of local sex workers was widespread.
A third whistle-blower described how a senior colleague boasted of trading medication for sex with girls in Ebola-hit Liberia. “He was suggesting lots of the young girls who had lost their parents to the Ebola crisis, that they would do anything sexual in return for medication.” The BBC said it had not been able to verify the allegation.
“We would urge anyone with any concerns to report them via MSF’s confidential whistle-blowing mechanisms so that we can take actio,” said MSF.
