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UN peacekeepers accused of sex abuse in Central Africa

This file photo taken on December 9, 2014 shows UN peacekeeping soldiers from Rwanda patrolling in Bangui, Central African Republic (AFP Photo)

UN peacekeepers from the Democratic Republic of Congo have been accused of sexually abusing four children who were living in a camp for displaced civilians in the Central African Republic.

The four victims were sexually abused between 2014 and 2015, UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters on Tuesday.

The UN mission in the Central African Republic has been hit by a wave of allegations of sex abuse by its peacekeepers, whose mandate is to protect civilians in the strife-torn country.

"These four allegations involve peacekeepers from the Democratic Republic of Congo," Haq said.

UN officials received information about the allegations from aid groups on February 11 who reported that the four minors were living at Ngakobo camp, in the Ouaka prefecture of the Central African Republic.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon fired the head of the 10,000-strong the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) force in August over the mounting number of cases, but the allegations have continued to surface.

The Kinshasa government was notified on Monday about the allegations and now has ten days to decide whether it will carry out its own investigation of the soldiers or ask the United Nations to take the lead.

After rape allegations targeted troops from DR Congo last year, the UN had decided to send the full contingent of some 120 soldiers back home.

Ban, last week, appointed a special coordinator, American Jane Holl Lute, who will be tasked with improving the UN response to sexual abuse cases involving peacekeepers.

This followed a report by an independent panel that found the UN had grossly mishandled the cases despite the official zero-tolerance policy on sexual violence.

In most of those cases, the young girls and boys were offered food in exchange for sex.

This AFP file photo shows children in a refugee camp in Bangui, Central African Republic.

The UN has faced severe criticism over allegations that French and African soldiers forced children to perform sexual acts in order to receive food between December 2013 and June 2014.

France has thousands of troops in the Central African Republic and 14 of its soldiers are under investigation over the allegations.

The Central African Republic plunged into crisis in December 2013, when anti-balaka militia began coordinated attacks against the Seleka group, which toppled the government in March that year.

As the guiding force, France effectively invaded its former colony after the UN Security Council adopted a resolution giving the African Union and France the go-ahead to send troops to the country.


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