Ebola survivors and rights group in Liberia are calling for the prosecution of International Red Cross officials involved in the misuse of donor funds during a 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak.
They will not accept an apology from the agency, saying it’s not enough.
The new head of the aid agency has promised to crack down on corruption after a scandal saying the organization has “zero tolerance for any grey area or black hole”.
Seventy-two year old Christina Freeman lost her son to Ebola in 2014 when the virus first spread from Guinea.
Liberia was the worst hit country in West Africa. At the time, over 4000 people died from the virus.
In 21 months about 11 000 people lost their lives in the region, but Christina survived and only her eyesight was affected.
As agencies rushed to contain the disease investigations into possible graft in the Liberian branch of the Red Cross were launched.
In 2016 the country office was closed and its board of directors dismissed.
Many in the country like Christina have been following the story closely.
Christina Freeman an Ebola Survivor shares her experience:
“They (Red Cross) did not do good to us. They did bad to us, because where we were, we was living between life and death, because the people that die in the LY (ELWA Ebola Centre) was not a small amount of people. If you went there and came back you tell God thanks,” she said.
The IFRC says it uncovered fraud committed during its operations.
The estimated losses totaling 6 million Swiss francs.
The new president of the Red Cross Francesco Rocca has promised to crack down.
In Liberia an estimated 2.7 million Swiss francs were lost to inflated prices of relief items, payroll and payment of volunteer incentives.
The former vice president of the Ebola Survivors Network in Liberia, Henry Tony, is also worried:
“That is criminal in nature, its criminal in nature. There must be some stand taken. If it is taken from the Red Cross or the international community, I think it will be prudent enough to set a legacy, because the loss of donor funds that could be used in the proper manner is misused, what will motivate the donors again just in case there is another outbreak, it could not be Ebola but another epidemic. So what will be their support? The people will be thinking about the past.”
IFRC has said other priorities for the organization include recruiting more volunteers to help cope with bigger and more frequent natural disasters, and persuading politicians to take the right decisions in future.
