UNICEF on Wednesday became the third U.N. agency in less than 48-hours to begin an internal inquiry into allegations of sexual abuse of women in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as claims of rape by U.N. workers threaten to engulf the globalist organization.
The children’s fund said it was “appalled that people who identify as UNICEF workers have reportedly committed abuse against vulnerable women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”
It added that once the internal inquiry is complete, “There will be serious consequences for any staff who have been found to have sexually abused people.
Earlier Wednesday the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said it too was investigating allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by one of its staff during the DRC’s Ebola crisis, while the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) made a similar announcement Tuesday.
As Breitbart News reported, W.H.O. has been accused by at least 50 women of a series of sexual attacks in a joint investigation by two news agencies.
Local women were allegedly plied with drinks, “ambushed” in hospitals, forced to have group sex with aid workers, and two became pregnant. Jobs in return for repeated sexual favors has also been alleged against both men and women.
This photo shows the remains of Habitation Leclerc in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. In the ruins, a group of abandoned children found shelter but were barely surviving. Exploiting that desperation, U.N. peacekeepers lured them into a child sex ring. In August 2007, the U.N. received complaints of “suspicious interactions” between Sri Lankan soldiers and Haitian children, launching an investigation. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)
The allegations cover the period between 2018 and March this year.
“The actions allegedly perpetrated by individuals identifying themselves as working for W.H.O. are unacceptable and will be robustly investigated,” the organization said in a statement.
The Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu has initiated a review of the specific allegations, as well as broader protection issues in health emergency response settings.
For its part, UNICEF said that it “encourage(s) all victims to come forward”, adding that it has “strengthened our efforts to prevent, and respond to, sexual exploitation and abuse” in the past two years and has now sent extra staff to DRC to investigate the latest allegations.
“Such abuses by U.N. personnel and other humanitarian workers are an outrageous breach of trust with those we are mandated to support, often in very trying humanitarian circumstances,” the IOM said earlier Wednesday.
Allegations of sexual misconduct have arisen in all peace operations deployed by the U.N. for the past 20 years at least.
A Sri Lanka Air Force airman carries the U.N. flag during training for a road patrol at the Institute of Peace Support Operations Training in Kukuleganga, Sri Lanka. A U.N. fund to help victims of sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers and U.N. staff has now grown to $1.5 million following contributions from 10 more countries including Sri Lanka, whose troops were implicated in a three-year-long child sex ring in Haiti. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena, file)
These behaviours are diverse, ranging from sex trafficking, rape, sodomy, and murder to prostitution, the production of pornography and transactional sex, with differing degrees of coercion, consent and criminality.
In 2014, almost 100 girls in the Central African Republic said they were sexually abused by international peacekeepers. The U.N. announced an investigation into allegations of rape and assault.
In 2011, several Oxfam staff were accused of sexual exploitation and abuse of women believed to be prostitutes in Chad in 2006.
In 2002, aid workers for more than 40 agencies, including the UNHCR and Save the Children in West Africa, were involved in extensive sexual exploitation of refugee children, offering food rations in return for favors.
Perpetrators reportedly targeted adults and young vulnerable children, with the primary victims women and children under the age of 18 who are incapable of fighting back against their U.N. blue helmeted-attackers.
AFP contributed to this story
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