Violence Continues In Central African Republic (Photo : Getty Images)
A probe found that some French and African peacekeepers from UNICEF assigned to African countries sexually abused young children by forcing the kids as young as nine to give oral sex in exchange for food. The incident happened in early 2014 at the height of the civil war in the Central African Republic.
The alleged abuses involved French, Chad and Equatorial Guinea troops who belong to Operation Sangaris, a French intervention mission, at a camp for displaced civilians. The camp is located near the Bangui M'Poko International Airport.
To worsen the situation, the sexual abuse was apparently swept under the rug as memos about the abuses were just passed from desk to desk and inbox to inbox involving several UN offices, reports Express. Last week, four French soldiers were question but were released with no charges filed on the accusation by six children. One the victims was also anally raped.
UN Secretary-General Bank Ki-moon accepted the broad findings of the investigating panel and lamented that the abuse on the natives was done by peacekeepers deployed to protect them.
Foreign Policy reports on Saturday that the independent UN panel cleared Anders Kompass, a former Swiss diplomat, of wrongdoing for leaking in spring the confidential document about the sexual abuse.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNCHR) Prince Zeid Raad al-Hussein forced Kompass to resign after he ordered an investigation on the diplomat's conduct. Kompass was the director of the UNCHR's Field Operations and Technical Cooperation Division when he leaked the sensitive data to the Moroccan government on UN policy in Western Sahara.
The UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services, however, reopened a separate investigation on Kompass's conduct on suspicion by some official in the UNHCR that he leaked the document to gain support from Morocco on a promotion he was after.
