So, here’s the thing: I can't say for sure who killed Dr Mouzoko or exactly why him. But what I'm sure of is that @WHO and @MinSanteRDC share direct responsibility for his murder.

TL; DR? Here’s a #thread of my findings (but really go and read!) https://twitter.com/Melaniegouby/status/1311308084422291456

The WHO and Ministry’s response to the Ebola outbreak relied on coercion, outright violence, a focus on biomedical solutions over community engagement and throwing cash at people they didn’t want to deal with.

The response paid DRC security forces to provide military escorts, police hospitals, and take people who might have contracted Ebola to the hospital by force, a clear contravention of basic humanitarian and medical ethics which organisations like @MSF protested.

I cannot recommence enough reading the thorough report written by Rachel Niehuus for the @GEC_CRG detailing a lot of the quite frankly shocking practices that were used to curb the outbreak. “By any means necessary” comes to mind. http://congoresearchgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/report-ebola-drc-the-perverse-effects-of-a-parallel-health-system.pdf

The trauma this inflicted on people who were literally kidnapped, as well as their family, is still deeply felt by the community, and will affect relations with the @MONUSCO and other UN agencies for years to come.

But @WHO didn’t just pay the military and the police, it also paid the intelligence services, the Agence National de Renseignement (ANR) for, among other things, contact tracing.

Sending the ANR to follow up on the sick means sending universally feared agents, responsible for some of the worst crimes in DRC, and led - at the time - by a man under US and EU sanctions. This is in contravention of UN agencies rules.

Worse still, if it’s possible, the response’s staff collaborated with armed groups, and hired combattants who were paid to do contact tracing or escort the response’s teams. Paying armed groups amount to financing terrorism under Congolese law.

One of the people who didn’t hesitate to pay combatants was Dr Shako (ex-coordinator in Butembo) who @EmmanFre revealed rented his own car to the response, a clear conflict of interest that people called out as “Ebola Business” but was dismissed as “rumours” by the WHO + media.

It’s not clear if WHO higher-ups knew about payment to combattants, but a significant number of people @WHO and the ministry were aware of the meetings with the militiamen. How could WHO not have known? I received no response from them.

Back to Dr Mouzoko: who did the militiamen who killed him worked for? All of them had clear ties to the ANR and were among the combatants that the response recruited. Why was he killed? I'll let you make up your own mind, but I’ve got one word and it’s MONEY.

The response spent $1 billion on curbing this outbreak, 3x the DRC government budget for health, and had no accounting process to speak of. Cue corruption, embezzlement and racket. I had so many “case studies” not all made it into the series.

Sexual abuse was also widespread as documented by @CARE and reported by the @newhumanitarian this morning https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/analysis/2020/09/29/Power-poverty-aid-sex-abuse-claims-Congo-Ebola-response

As a result of the growing unrest WHO ended up paying security forces an average $620,000/month. My investigation shows that some of the violence was orchestrated to increase those payments.

Investigating this story, two important things emerged for me: first, for the first time in its history, the WHO didn’t just play an advisory role, but had a lead operational role in this response, and it messed up.

Instead of listening to more experienced organisations like @MSF or @MONUSCO, @WHO chose to do things its own way. The irony of the adviser not taking advices was not lost on dozens of people high up in those organisations who were outraged by the WHO’s arrogance.

The second is the failure of the international press, who instead of questioning the power structures (WHO and the Ministry) did the “brave doctors” story to death, and insisted on painting communities as “ignorant” and violent.

There are some fabulous examples of racist bias in media content that was produced during this crisisS. Some received prestigious awards, which goes to show that despite movements like BLM, neocolonial narratives about DRC are still not challenged.

None of this reporting would have been possible without the supported of @journagrants who’ve been willing to let me change my plans and extend deadlines. Very grateful.