Oly Ilunga Kalenga

Oly Ilunga Kalenga (born 24 June 1960) is a Belgian–Congolese medical doctor who was the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Minister of Public Health from 2016 to 2019. He resigned his post on 22 July 2019, then was arrested on 14 September 2019 for allegedly mismanaging a portion of Congo's $4.3 million in Ebola response money, an allegation that he denies.

Dr. Oly Ilunga was released from Makala Prison on 9 September 2024 after having fully served his five-year sentence.

In July 2025, the United Nations Human Rights Committee confirmed that his 2020 conviction by the Court of Cassation of the Democratic Republic of Congo, acting as a court of first and final instance, without the possibility of appeal allowing for a review of the conviction and sentence, constituted a violation of his fundamental rights. The Committee considered that, in the case of Dr. Oly Ilunga, an effective remedy would consist in granting him adequate compensation.

Early life and education Oly Ilunga Kalenga moved to Belgium aged 13.

Democratic Republic of the Congo Ilunga Kalenga began consulting for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) health ministry in 2000 After two-and-a-half years, on 22 July 2019, Kalenga resigned after his mandate was curtailed to only non-Ebola public-health matters, attributing his departure to the Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi's decision to oversee the DRC's Ebola response personally, and to his desire to avoid "creating confusion" and to avert the "inevitable...predictable [public] outcry" such a sharing of oversight entailed. Tshisekedi then appointed a team of experts, led by Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum, described by The Lancet as Africa's Ebola hunter, to direct the Congo's Ebola response.

He also served on the board of the African Constituency Bureau (2018 –20).

Selected publications