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Leaked Report Alleges French Troops Raped Starving Children in the Central African Republic as They Sought Food
A UN internal report leaked to the Guardian newspaper alleges that French troops deployed as part of a peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (CAR) raped boys as young as nine. The abuse is believed to have taken place between December 2013 and June 2014 in a displaced persons center at the M'Poko airport in the capital Bangui.
Advocacy group Aids Free World, which is demanding an independent investigation into the allegations of abuse, handed the confidential report —titled Sexual Abuse on Children by International Armed Forces — to the Guardian.
According to the Guardian, the report is believed to have been originally leaked by Swedish UN aid worker Anders Kompass, who allegedly forwarded the report to French authorities out of frustration with the UN's inaction. Kompass has since been suspended from his post as director of field operations for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for breaching confidentiality protocols, and could be fired.
Paula Donovan, co-director of AIDS Free World, told VICE News today that the report contains six interviews that took place between May 5 and June 27. That timeframe would indicate incidents continued to occur after UN investigators first began looking into the abuses.
The interviews recount, at times in great detail, how roughly a dozen French troops stationed in Bangui as part of the UN's peacekeeping operations raped and sexually abused starving and displaced children in exchange for food.
According to witnesses aged 9 and 11, French troops forced them to perform sex acts while they were out looking for food. The children who were interviewed were able to provide descriptions of the troops who had they said had engaged in the abuse.
CAR has been torn apart by civil conflict since late 2012, when the mainly Muslim Seleka rebel coalition launched a series of attacks. In March 2013, the Seleka marched on Bangui and replaced President François Bozize with their own leader, Michel Djotodia, plunging the country into chaos. Relentless violence by the Seleka against the majority Christian population prompted the formation of Christian vigilante militias, called the anti-balaka.
In December 2013, France launched Operation Sangaris, a peacekeeping military campaign to restore law and order in the country after fighting broke out between the Seleka rebels and mainly Christian anti-balaka militias. The mission's aims, said French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, were "to establish minimum security, allowing a humanitarian intervention to start" and "to allow the African mission to intervene and implement democracy."
Leaked Report Alleges French Troops Raped Starving Children in the Central African Republic as They Sought Food | VICE News
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Barbarism of Europeans knows no limit...
A UN internal report leaked to the Guardian newspaper alleges that French troops deployed as part of a peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (CAR) raped boys as young as nine. The abuse is believed to have taken place between December 2013 and June 2014 in a displaced persons center at the M'Poko airport in the capital Bangui.
Advocacy group Aids Free World, which is demanding an independent investigation into the allegations of abuse, handed the confidential report —titled Sexual Abuse on Children by International Armed Forces — to the Guardian.
According to the Guardian, the report is believed to have been originally leaked by Swedish UN aid worker Anders Kompass, who allegedly forwarded the report to French authorities out of frustration with the UN's inaction. Kompass has since been suspended from his post as director of field operations for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for breaching confidentiality protocols, and could be fired.
Paula Donovan, co-director of AIDS Free World, told VICE News today that the report contains six interviews that took place between May 5 and June 27. That timeframe would indicate incidents continued to occur after UN investigators first began looking into the abuses.
The interviews recount, at times in great detail, how roughly a dozen French troops stationed in Bangui as part of the UN's peacekeeping operations raped and sexually abused starving and displaced children in exchange for food.
According to witnesses aged 9 and 11, French troops forced them to perform sex acts while they were out looking for food. The children who were interviewed were able to provide descriptions of the troops who had they said had engaged in the abuse.
CAR has been torn apart by civil conflict since late 2012, when the mainly Muslim Seleka rebel coalition launched a series of attacks. In March 2013, the Seleka marched on Bangui and replaced President François Bozize with their own leader, Michel Djotodia, plunging the country into chaos. Relentless violence by the Seleka against the majority Christian population prompted the formation of Christian vigilante militias, called the anti-balaka.
In December 2013, France launched Operation Sangaris, a peacekeeping military campaign to restore law and order in the country after fighting broke out between the Seleka rebels and mainly Christian anti-balaka militias. The mission's aims, said French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, were "to establish minimum security, allowing a humanitarian intervention to start" and "to allow the African mission to intervene and implement democracy."
Leaked Report Alleges French Troops Raped Starving Children in the Central African Republic as They Sought Food | VICE News
----------------
Barbarism of Europeans knows no limit...
