Crisis sparked by sex abuse grips UNAIDS chief

GENEVA — It started with sexual assault allegations against a male UNAIDS executive and a heavilycriticized internal investigation that exonerated the accused.

Now the crisis involving accusations against former deputy executive director Luiz Loures has spread, raising pressure on the overall head of the organization.

Michel Sidibe, a Malian national who took charge of UNAIDS in 2009, is under fire from current and former colleagues as well as civil society groups, who have raised questions about his leadership.

He faces allegations of sheltering powerful men accused of wrongdoing, including Loures, whom two women have publicly accused of sexual assault.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the world's largest HIV/AIDS organization, has called for Sidibe's resignation and said that without substantive reform, UNAIDS should be disbanded.

"He sits on his throne in Geneva... and is not accountable to anyone," AHF president Michael Weinstein told AFP. "He wants everything to be adulation."

UNAIDS did not answer a detailed set of questions submitted by AFP.

In an email, agency spokeswoman Sophie Barton-Knott noted that Sidibe had put in place a "five point plan to prevent and address all forms of harassment within UNAIDS".

The plan is one of several initiatives launched by the UN, including a new hotline, to address sexual harassment amid the global #metoo movement.

Loures left the agency last month.

As well as the two women to accuse him publicly, others have spoken anonymously about him to multiple media outlets.

AFP is not aware of any legal proceedings under way in support of any of the accusations.

One accuser is Malayah Harper, who worked at the agency for a decade and is now the general secretary of the World Young Women's Christian Association.