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The former health minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo was arrested for alleged mismanagement of $ 4.3 million (£ 3.4 million) for the Ebola response.
Oly Ilunga, who stepped down from his post as health minister in July after being dismissed as President of President Felix Tshisekedi from the Ebola virus, denied any wrongdoing.
Congolese police said that Ilunga was arrested Saturday in Kinshasa, fearing he would leave the country rather than be sued.
"Unfortunately, the police received information about his disappearance in order to reach Congo-Brazzaville," said the press service of the National Police.
On Monday, his lawyers, Guy Kabeya and Willy Ngashi, denied this claim: "More than $ 1.9 million of this sum was paid in the month following Dr. Ilunga's resignation, so [be expected to] answer that at all. For the rest, $ 2.4 million (…) accounting documents attest that this sum was used exclusively for the purpose of fighting the Ebola virus. "
Illunga was appointed Minister of Health in December 2016 by former President Joseph Kabila, and criticized the World Health Organization (WHO) 's project to use an unlicensed vaccine against Ebola in his resignation letter.
He also opposed the decision to remove him from his position as head of the Ebola team, claiming that he was being replaced by a committee that had ingested in response management.
Ilunga was replaced by Jean-Jacques Muyembe, director of the Congolese Institute for Biomedical Research in Kinshasa, as coordinator of the Ebola team.
The Ebola outbreak was declared on August 1, 2018. Since September 11 this year, the Ministry of Health has recorded 3,099 cases (2,988 confirmed and 111 probable), including 2,074 deaths.
Of the total cases, 56% (1,737) were women, 29% (886) were under 18 years of age, and 5% (157) were health care workers.
More than 200,000 people have been vaccinated against the disease in the DRC, as well as health workers and front-line workers in Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda and Burundi. Two treatments in a clinical trial saved nine out of ten lives if used at the best time.
Stakeholders trying to control the spread of the disease have performed over 89 million screenings in both the DRC and international borders to identify cases and treat people with symptoms.
Suspicions about health personnel and insecurity have made the response to the epidemic difficult, particularly in parts of the region that have been affected by armed conflict for decades.
The latest WHO update shows that the rate of transmission continued to decline last week, with 40 new confirmed cases reported in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri. The weekly incidence is the lowest since March 2019. While these indications are encouraging, the WHO warned that it was still too early to tell whether the trend would persist: "Emerging hot spots continue to pose problems of accessibility, insecurity and violence. Surveillance indicators emphasize that public health risks to spread further remain very high. "
Last month, WHO called on partners to "react with all their might" to address "one of the world's largest and most complex humanitarian crises".
Donors have already provided more than $ 150 million (£ 120 million) to fight the Ebola virus. The WHO is calling for additional resources to fund the response until December 2019.
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