New victims add weight to UN sexual abuse scandal
Print Edition
MORE than 100 girls and women have come forward with new sexual abuse accusations against international peacekeepers in Central African Republic, the UN said, calling allegations that a French military commander forced three girls to have sex with a dog “shocking to the core.”
The revelations dramatically expand an already alarming scandal involving troops sent to protect civilians in the world’s hotspots who become predators instead.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said 108 alleged victims of sexual abuse have been interviewed by a UN team in Kemo prefecture, east of the capital Bangui, the vast majority of them minors.
The allegations date from 2013 through last year and far eclipse the 22 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation in Central African Republic in 2015 that the UN reported earlier this month.
Dujarric said the UN can’t confirm a report by the US-based advocacy group, AIDS-Free World, that three girls told the UN they were taken to a French military camp, tied up, undressed, and forced by a commander to have sex with a dog — but he said the investigation is continuing.
According to the group, each girl was given 5,000 Central African francs, worth about US$9, after having sex with the dog, including a fourth girl who later died of an unknown illness. France’s UN ambassador Francois Delattre called the allegations “sickening and odious” and promised “exemplary disciplinary action” in addition to a criminal response if they’re proven true.
AIDS-Free World, which first reported the new allegations on Wednesday night, said 98 girls in Central African Republic had reported being sexually abused between 2013 and 2015 by perpetrators who have left the country.
The group also said information on the alleged rape of a 16-year-old girl by a Congolese peacekeeper only three days ago in a hotel room in a different part of the country has been turned over to the United Nations.
Paula Donovan, co-director of AIDS-Free World and its Code Blue Campaign against sexual abuse, said on Thursday when asked about the new allegations: “Obviously that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”
The United Nations has been in the spotlight for months over dozens of allegations of child rape and other sexual abuses by its peacekeepers, especially those based in Central African Republic, which has faced sectarian violence since 2013. There have been similar allegations against the French force known as Sangaris, which operates independently in the country, known as CAR.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was “shocked to the core by the latest allegations.”
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