MSF says 24 cases of harassment, sex abuse in 2017

PARIS: Aid group Doctors Without Borders on Wednesday said it had acted on 24 cases of sexual harassment or abuse last year as British charity Oxfam faces a storm over its handling of a sex scandal.

The Paris-based group, known by its French acronym MSF, said it had received 146 complaints or alerts last year, of which 24 were for sexual harassment or sexual assault. The charity fired 19 staff members as a result while other employees were handed disciplinary measures or were suspended, it said in a statement. It warned that the true figure could be higher as the 24 does not include cases reported to MSF teams on the ground that may not have been signalled to head office.