IVORY COAST: UN troops accused of sexually exploiting underage girls in Ivory Coast

Record ID: 182044

  • Title: IVORY COAST: UN troops accused of sexually exploiting underage girls in Ivory Coast
  • Date: 25th July 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (French) TEACHER, GERVAIS KOFFI, SAYING: "I think these are deplorable attitudes, it's behaviour that shouldn't take place in an operation like the United Nations mission. But, well, they are men, and what's important is the vigourous reaction of ONUCI to these acts which unfortunately took place here in Ivory Coast."
  • Embargoed: 9th August 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA80N887ECD59EI44TYXLHIPLU0
  • Story Text: Allegations that U.N. soldiers sexually exploited underage girls in Ivory Coast have shaken the world body and drawn local condemnation.
    All U.N. Blue Helmets are banned from having sex with locals, but the allegations will inspire little confidence that the world body is succeeding in stamping out abuse after similar scandals hit its missions in Liberia and Democratic Republic of Congo.
    "I think these are deplorable attitudes, it's behaviour that shouldn't take place in an operation like the United Nations mission. But, well, they are men, and what's important is the vigourous reaction of ONUCI to these acts which unfortunately took place here in Ivory Coast," says Gervais Koffi, a teacher in the commercial capital Abidjan.
    A contingent of 734 Moroccan soldiers serving in the north of the West African state has been suspended and confined to its barracks pending an investigation into abuse involving large numbers of girls as young as 13 over a three-year period.
    "It's a very difficult situation because the Moroccan contingent played a central role in the ONUCI operations in the Eastern sector. We will have to show creativity and imagination and from this point of view I think we can trust the ONUCI military chiefs to take all dispositions so that there isn't any disruption in our day to day activities to fulfil the mandate entrusted to us in that sector," says UN spokesperson Hamadoun Toure.
    Ivorians have in the past been quick to stage protests against U.N. and French peacekeepers, especially in the south where they are viewed as sympathising with the rebels, but many in Bouake were as quick to blame local girls as the soldiers.
    "I think that they are abusing them, they take advantage of them because they are little girls; 15-years-old, 14-years-old, minors. If the girls approached them, they could easily have drawn back and advised them instead. They may have had little presents to give them, because they are young girls who have nothing, who have difficulties at home and have nothing to eat," said Abiba Coulibaly, a trader who is finishing secondary school.
    Poverty has grown in the world's top cocoa grower. The percentage of the population below the poverty line has risen to 43 percent in 2006 from 38 percent since the war, forcing adults and children to beg in a once stable and wealthy state.
    Although many locals claim to have known about such practises for a year or longer, people only began to make complaints about the Moroccan troops after a recent U.N. campaign calling on people to report sexual abuse and exploitation.
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