The UN human rights office says it has turned up six more cases of alleged sexual abuse against children by European troops in the Central African Republic, including a seven-year-old girl who said she had to perform sexual acts on troops in exchange for water and cookies.
A UN team interviewed five girls and a boy who claimed their abusers were part of French and EU military operations in the troubled African nation, the office of EU High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al-Hussein said.
The sexual abuse allegedly took place in 2014 in or near a camp for displaced people near M’Poko airport in the capital, Bangui, but only came to light this month, the latest in a string of similar allegations.
France, the Central African Republic’s former colonial ruler, deployed several thousand troops to the nation in late 2013 as violence between Christians and Muslims sent thousands fleeing from their homes. An African Union mission that began in April 2014 was taken over by a UN peacekeeping force five months later, while the EU force ended an 11-month mission in March last year.
At a news conference on Friday in New York, the UN announced new allegations against UN peacekeepers as well. UN Assistant Secretary-General Anthony Banbury came close to tears as he described four new child sex abuse cases involving UN troops and police from Bangladesh, Congo, Niger and Senegal.
He also announced an allegation of sexual assault against a minor by a member of a Moroccan military contingent serving with the earlier African Union mission.
For all of last year, Banbury said, there are likely to be 69 confirmed allegations of sexual abuse or exploitation in the UN’s 16 peacekeeping missions around the world, including 22 in the Central African Republic. That is up from 51 in 2014, when there were no reported cases in the Central African Republic, he said.
In a shift for the world body, Banbury said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would issue a report next month with details of all allegations from last year, including the names of the nations whose troops are accused. The information, including the status of investigations, would be regularly updated online, he said.
“It’s hard to imagine the outrage that people working for the United Nations in the causes of peace and security feel when these kinds of allegations come to light,” Banbury said, his voice breaking.
The UN is under pressure to act more quickly after an independent panel last month described the world body’s “gross institutional failure” in handling similar allegations in the Central African Republic against French and other peacekeepers. The panel’s report said the months-long delay in addressing children’s accounts of abuse had led to even more reported assaults.
The UN can report such allegations, but nations themselves are responsible for prosecuting their troops over such crimes. Many do not.
The UN rights office said three of the girls said they believed their abusers were members of a Georgian contingent within an EU force, while another girl was allegedly abused by a soldier from another European nation that was not named because “additional corroboration is needed” in that case.
UN staffers interviewed a seven-year-old girl and nine-year-old boy who said they had been abused by troops in the French “Sangaris” operation. The girl said she had performed “oral sex on French troops in exchange for a bottle of water and a sachet of cookies,” the statement from Zeid’s office said.
The EU’s foreign affairs service said the EU was informed of the allegations on Jan. 19 and immediately offered assistance to the UN investigators.
“The EU takes these allegations very seriously,” the statement said.
The Georgian Ministry of Defense said it received the allegations “with great concern,” adding that “it is our goal to investigate this matter in great detail and in case such grave crimes are proven, perpetrators of such crimes will be brought to justice.”
Rupert Colville, a spokesman for Zeid’s office, estimated that troops from “something like 10” foreign military contingents in the Central African Republic have been embroiled in sexual misconduct allegations. He said it was difficult to estimate how many individual soldiers might have been involved.
“What is abundantly clear... is that it’s been rampant,” Colville told reporters. “What this does show is this is a problem with armies, with the military forces, and for whatever reason not enough is being done to stop this happening — the message doesn’t seem to have got through.”
He said he was unaware of any convictions so far in any of the cases that have been brought to light.
Banbury said the UN was taking new steps to protect against sexual abuse, promote accountability and assist victims. Every single member of peacekeeping forces is now vetted, he said, and those involved in prior misconduct, human-rights violations or serious crimes are not allowed to serve.
Other changes include acting within 24 hours of an allegation to collect evidence. The UN is also asking troop-contributing nations to conclude their investigations of allegations within six months and report results — and “we now proactively suspend payments for personnel who are credibly accused of abuse,” Banbury said.
He also urged others to come forward with allegations, saying that people who do not report the information they receive are “complicit in the crime.”
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