KINSHASA, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Former health minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Oly Ilunga has been detained since Saturday over allegations of public fund embezzlement, police said.
According to a statement by the national police spokesman Colonel Mwanaputu, the former health minister had wanted to leave the country clandestinely in order to escape the justice that is pursuing him in the case of the management of the fund allocated to Ebola response in the northeastern part of the country.
Appointed as head of the Ministry of Health in December 2016, Oly Ilunga resigned on July 22 this year after the coordination of the Ebola response was withdrawn by President Felix Tshisekedi who appointed another coordinator to lead the fight against Ebola.
Oly Ilunga was heard in early September by the courts in an investigation into the use of public funds allocated to the Ebola response, which has killed at least 2,000 people in 13 months.
The former minister would come before a prosecutor on Sept. 16.
