* WHO says internal investigation identified 2 potential victims
* Seven organizations named, including 3 U.N. agencies
By Robert Flummerfelt and Ange Kasongo
BUTEMBO, Democratic Republic of Congo, May 12 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – M ore than 20 Congolese women have accused aid workers of sexual abuse in new claims that include rape and unwanted pregnancies, with United Nations investigators uncovering similar allegations of workers exploiting vulnerable women.
The New Humanitarian and the Thomson Reuters Foundation spoke to 22 women in Butembo who said male aid workers responding to an Ebola crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo offered them jobs in exchange for sex.
The claims come as donors pressure aid groups to do more to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse while assisting the world’s most vulnerable, and follow a joint investigation by reporters last year in which 51 women in the nearby city of Beni made similar allegations.