DR Congo’s ex-Ebola minister ‘mismanaged $4.3m’

Lawyers for the former health minister in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Oly Ilunga, say the authorities have accused him of mismanaging $4.3m (£3.4m) from money allocated to the fight against the Ebola virus.

But they have stressed that he denies wrongdoing, saying almost half the money in question was spent after he had resigned in July.

A statement says that there is documentation to prove that the rest of the money was spent exclusively on combating the virus.

Dr Ilunga was arrested on Saturday. He has denied police allegations that he was trying to flee DR Congo.

When Dr Ilunga resigned as minister he criticised the decision to remove him as head of the Ebola response team and to replace him with a committee, which he said had interfered with his work.

He also criticised the World Health Organization’s plan to use an unlicensed vaccine against Ebola.