Dr Richard Valery Mouzoko Kiboung, An African Hero, Laid To Rest

"We See Dr Richard Valery Mouzoko Kiboung"

With overwhelming grief and respect, Dr Richard Valery Mouzoko Kiboung, a devoted doctor, epidemiologist, husband and father who had worked with the World Health Organization (WHO) for the past five years was buried on the May 4th 2019, in his native Cameroon.

Dr Richard Valery Mouzoko Kiboung, an epidemiologist deployed by WHO in the response to the Ebola outbreak in DRC, was killed in an attack on Butembo University Hospital on Friday, 19 April 2019. The world is mourning his death. This Doctor who had every chance to stay in the West where he completed his studies, decided to return to Africa and take care of it's people. Africa responded to his devotion with a bullet, due to, reasons only a mad man could understand.

Dr Mouzoko, 42, died from a gunshot wound sustained during an assailants’ attack on 19 April 2019 at Butembo University Hospital, where he was chairing a meeting with front-line health workers battling the Ebola virus disease in the North Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
A man described as “ready to fly instantly to help his neighbour”, Dr Mouzoko was leading the WHO response team at the Butembo University Hospital’s Ebola treatment centre, in one of the worst Ebola hot spots in the country.
"The passing of Dr Richard is an enormous loss for WHO and the people of the DRC he was serving when his life was so brutally and senselessly taken away. It’s also an enormous loss for Cameroon, and most of all for his family, who have lost a husband, a father, a son and a brother,” WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told hundreds of mourners.
“The world of public health and WHO, in particular, lost someone exceptional in that April attack,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. “We enter this profession to help others live healthier lives. We expect long careers and hope to live to see some results of our work. Dr Richard had great impact in his short life and helped make countless lives healthier. He was a doctor, a humanitarian and a hero – an example for us all.”