CONGA (Africa) - UN peacekeepers in Congo regularly offered women and girls, some as young as 13, food or small amounts of money in exchange for sex, a report released Friday by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services found. According to the report, the sexual exploitation and abuse problems were "serious and ongoing" and the fact that there was no deterrence or protection program was "disturbing."
Even while the OIOS investigation was underway, sexual activities continued, the report said, noting that freshly used condoms were discarded near military camps and guard posts. "It was clear that the investigation did not act as a deterrent for some of the troops, perhaps because they had not been made aware of the severe penalties for engaging in such conduct, nor had they seen any evidence of a negative impact on individual peacekeepers for such behavior," it noted.
OIOS investigators said military commanders from certain contingents had tried to block their work. "On several occasions, the commanders of these contingents either failed to provide the requested information or assistance or actively interfered with the investigation," said the report, which examined 72 allegations against military and civilian UN personnel that resulted in 20 case reports.
"In six cases, the allegations against the peacekeeper were fully substantiated, and underage girls were involved in all of them," said the report, adding that none of the peacekeepers admitted to the allegations. The report called on the home countries of the peacekeepers to take appropriate action.
"Dozens of interviews with the girls themselves and with the young Congolese men who facilitated the encounters, as well as with aid workers, revealed a pattern of sexual exploitation by peacekeepers," it found. Many of the girls had been raped or sexually abused by local warring factions in Bunia.
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