A shocking new report has claimed that UN peacekeepers from 12 different countries have fathered and then abandoned thousands of children in the poverty-stricken Democratic Republic of the Congo since 1999.
The report also alleges that soldiers and police officers operating under a UN mandate in the war-torn country have abused children, raped young women and traded food for “sex for survival”.
One victim was just 10 years old when her aunt took her to UN peacekeepers who showered her with beer, raped her and made her pregnant, the report says.
The majority of the absent fathers were from Tanzania and South Africa, with others from Morocco, Uruguay, Nepal and Bangladesh.
The men were in the country in roles ranging from soldiers, officers and pilots to drivers, cooks, doctors and photographers.
UN peacekeeping forces first went to the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1999 as part of a ceasefire agreement to end the Second Congo War that was being fought between it and Rwanda, Uganda, Angola, Zimbabwe and Nabibia along with rebel movements.
A shocking new report claims that UN peacekeepers from 12 different countries have fathered and then abandoned thousands of children in the poverty-stricken Democratic Republic of the Congo since 1999
The report also alleges that soldiers and police officers operating under a UN mandate in the war-torn country abused children, raped young women and traded food for “sex for survival”. Pictured: Bangladeshi soldiers from the United Nations Mission in DR Congo (MONUSCO) shoot at militiamen to protect the departure of a Red Cross team
The majority of the absent fathers were from Tanzania and South Africa, with others from Morocco, Uruguay, Nepal and Bangladesh. Pictured: Indian military from Monusco, the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Sexual abuse and exploitation became a serious problem shortly after UN troops invaded the country, reports The Conversation.
The presence of peacekeepers often leads to a rapid increase in sex trafficking and brothels near military bases, child prostitution, the exchange of sex for goods or food, and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV.
Although there should be policies to prevent the wrongdoing, it has been recognized as a systemic problem and every UN mission has been linked to allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse.
The youngest girl among the researchers interviewed to have had a child with a Peacekeeper was just ten years old, while half were under eighteen when she became pregnant.
The research was led by a team from the University of Birmingham who interviewed dozens of peacekeeper children, aged between six and 19. They also spoke extensively with the mothers and conducted thousands of interviews in total.
Of the 2,858 interviews conducted, nearly half (1,182 people) unsolicited raised the issues of abuse by peacekeepers and abandoned children.
They found that the mothers of these children were often rejected by their own families and stigmatized in their communities, while the children grew up in dire need and poverty, neglected and marginalized.
The UN Secretary-General’s Special Advisor, Prince Zeid Raad Al-Hussein, acknowledged in 2005 that “many victims, particularly those who have ‘peacekeeper babies’ and have been abandoned by their fathers, are in dire financial straits[s]’
Kirstin Wagner, who worked on the study, said: “The Democratic Republic of the Congo remains one of the poorest and most conflict-torn countries in the world.
“The length and scale of the peacekeeping mission there indicate that a significant number of children are born as a result of sexual abuse.
“There are potentially thousands of children left behind by peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” she said.
“Part of the problem is that some of the dispatchers appear to view these missions as opportunities for sex tourism and sex crimes that they are unlikely to commit in their home countries.”
Most mothers described their sexual contact with UN personnel as “transactional,” Wagner said. It was based on the exchange of food, clothing, and money, with occasional arrangements for soldiers to pay girls’ school fees in exchange for sex.
She added: “Some women have had sex because they wanted a cell phone, a new haircut, or new shoes. This is different than women having sex because they need sustenance to live, which is called survival sex.’
The study focused on the experiences of children left without fathers. A 13-year-old said: “I never go to school. I have no food support and even when I get food I start thinking about my mother who lives abroad and my father who I have never seen.
Monusco [the UN peacekeeping operation] should remember us who were left here in Kisangani. We are considered orphans.’
A UN peacekeeping spokesman said: “Over the past five years we have taken action to prevent this wrongdoing, to investigate suspected perpetrators, including military contingents, and to hold them accountable, including through repatriation.”
Researchers found that the mothers of these children were often rejected by their own families and stigmatized within their communities, while the children grew up in dire need and poverty, neglected and marginalized
“We continue to publicly report allegations as we receive them and the status of those allegations in our public database.
“Staff have been separated from the organization and no one who has been the subject of a reasonable investigation for sexual misconduct can be reinstated within the system.”
This month, only 426 allegations of child paternity have been registered by peacekeepers since 2007, of which only 44 have been confirmed. The rest is still pending.
More than 97,000 peacekeepers from over 120 countries are currently serving in 12 peacekeeping operations around the world.
Although it is the duty of all UN personnel to protect and “do no harm,” sexual assaults against local civilians, mostly young girls, have been reported wherever missions have been established.
Large protests against the presence of the UN peacekeeping mission, known as the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), have shaken the east of the country in recent weeks.
But these protests are more about the peacekeepers’ lack of protection against rebel groups than the peacekeepers’ behavior towards the local population.