More sex abuse by UN troops alleged in C. African Republic

A human rights group has alleged that at least eight women and girls were raped or sexually exploited by UN peacekeepers late last year in Central African Republic, and the world body announced that more than 100 troops would be sent home.
Human Rights Watch yesterday said a 14-year-old and an 18-year-old alleged that peacekeepers gang-raped them near the airport in Bambari, the country's second-largest city.
The UN peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic said later yesterday it had identified seven new possible victims in Bambari in cases that Human Rights Watch brought to its attention.
The UN said the soldiers implicated in the cases are from the Republic of Congo and Congo.

The mission said 120 soldiers from the Republic of Congo who were deployed to Bambari from September 17 to December 14 will be repatriated after an investigation is carried out. In the meantime, it said, they will be confined to barracks.
A fact-finding expert sent to Bambari found "sufficient initial evidence" that five alleged victims were minors and had been sexually abused, and that one adult had been sexually exploited, the mission said. The expert was unable to interview the seventh alleged victim. One allegation by Human Rights Watch had been previously reported and is currently under investigation, the mission said.

Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, the UN envoy for Central African Republic who traveled to Bambari yesterday, expressed outrage and shame at the latest allegations, saying it is "a double crime" to attack vulnerable women and children that peacekeepers were sent to protect.

The new cases highlight concerns about peacekeeper abuse beyond the chaotic country's capital.
The UN mission in Central African Republic tweeted that there have been 13 cases of sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers in Bambari since September 2014.
The UN has been unable to explain why so many rapes and other sexual abuse by peacekeepers have been alleged in Central African Republic, which has been gripped by deadly violence between Christians and Muslims since late 2013. Thousands of UN and other peacekeepers have been in the country since then.

On Friday, UN Assistant Secretary-General Anthony Banbury came close to tears as he described four new child sex abuse cases in the country involving UN troops and police from Bangladesh, Congo, Niger and Senegal. It was the first time the world body had publicly named countries whose UN personnel are accused, as part of a new policy.