UN peacekeepers in Central African Republic accused of committing four new sex abuse cases

The United Nations on Tuesday reported four new allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse with UN peacekeepers in the Central African Republic (CAR).

The four allegations involved peacekeepers from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Farhan Haq, the deputy UN spokesman, said at a daily news briefing here, citing what he called "initial information" received by the UN Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) from humanitarian partners on Feb. 11.

The victims, four minors, were all residents of the Ngakobo camp for internally displaced persons in Ouaka prefecture and were allegedly sexually exploited and abused by peacekeepers between 2014 and 2015, according to Haq.

"The Mission is cooperating closely with UN agencies and their partners to ensure that the victims have access to appropriate medical and psycho-social assistance," he said. "These allegations follow MINUSCA and UN agencies' active engagement with communities to encourage victims to come forward."

"The member state has been informed on the allegations yesterday and requested to convey within ten days their intention to investigate, failing which the UN will conduct its own investigation," he added.

Meanwhile, Haq said that the United Nations is investigating fresh allegations of sexual abuse in the CAR.

On Feb. 4, MINUSCA reported that it has identified seven new possible victims of sexual exploitation and abuse in the town of Bambari, just days after the UN revealed which countries' troops have been accused of abusing minors.

In a press release, MINUSCA said the cases were brought to its attention on Jan. 21 by a team of Human Rights Watch researchers, who passed the information to the Mission in the interest of ensuring medical and psycho-social care for the victims and accountability for any alleged crimes.

The soldiers implicated in these cases are from the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The governments of Republic of Congo and DRC have been notified of these allegations and have been asked to launch investigations. The CAR national authorities have also been informed.

"Due to the gravity of these allegations and given the information collected through the initial fact-finding, the United Nations has decided to take immediate measures, including the repatriation of the 120 Republic of Congo soldiers who were deployed to Bambari from 17 September to 14 December 2015," the UN Mission announced in the press release, noting that this repatriation will occur after an investigation is carried out, and the soldiers will be confined to barracks.

In the spring of 2014, allegations came to light that international troops serving as peacekeepers had sexually abused a number of young children in exchange for food or money. The alleged perpetrators were largely from a French military force known as Sangaris, which was operating under authorization of the Security Council but not under UN command.

The nearly 11,000-strong MINUSCA was set up in 2014 after fighting between the mainly Muslim Séléka and mainly Christian anti-Balaka groups erupted in early 2013, killing thousands of people and driving hundreds of thousands more from their homes. The mission played a major role in providing security last month for the first round of presidential and legislative elections.

The new allegations came in early January after the United Nations has confirmed 63 allegations of misconduct at the UN Mission since it began operations last year, with the UN under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, Herve Ladsous, reporting after a four-day visit to CAR in September that out of these 63 allegations, "15 relate to possible sexual exploitation and abuse. ... Most of those cases are under investigation." Endit