The United Nations said on Saturday it had suspended a Moroccan military contingent from its peacekeeping mission in Cote d'Ivoire while it investigated allegations of widespread sexual abuse.The UN peacekeepers are supposed to be protecting these people from harm, and instead turn the women and girls into sex slaves for their own personal gratification and amusement.
Moroccan U.N. peacekeepers stop a bus near Bouake, Cote d'Ivoire, in March.
"It means they don't participate in our operations," said Hamadoun Toure, spokesman for the U.N. mission in Cote d'Ivoire (ONUCI). "Those who are found guilty will be sent back home."
The world body said the measure was in addition to a decision to confine the entire battalion of 734 soldiers to barracks.
U.N. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Friday the investigation involved Moroccan soldiers having sex with a large number of underage girls in the West African country's northern rebel stronghold of Bouake.
Toure said the allegations had come to light after the mission ran a campaign against sexual exploitation in which it asked local people to inform it about abuses. It then sent a team to carry out interviews and gather information.
The Cote d'Ivoire mission numbers just over 9,000 uniformed personnel from more than 40 countries. Moroccans make up the bulk of the force in Bouake with some Bangladeshi police, Pakistani engineers and Ghanaian medical personnel.
The UN has repeatedly found its peacekeepers engaging in this kind of behavior despite claims that they would crack down on such behavior and punish those involved severely.
It is, however, nice to see that the UN attempting to police its own peacekeepers by sending out teams to investigate whether the peacekeepers are operating professionally and not engaging in illegal behavior.
UPDATE:
Others noting the latest UN sex scandal: Outside the Beltway, Macranger, and Blue Crab Boulevard.
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