Wikileaks cable: UN peacekeepers in Ivory Coast traded food for sex with underage girls

[kpete]

Source: Washington Post

Wikileaks cable: UN peacekeepers in Ivory Coast traded food for sex with underage girls

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — United Nations peacekeepers in Ivory Coast enticed underage girls in a poor part of the West African nation to exchange sex for food, according to a United States Embassy cable released by WikiLeaks.

The cable written in January 2010 focuses on the behavior of Beninese peacekeepers stationed in the western town of Toulepleu, an area that has been at the crosshairs of the nation’s 10-year-long conflict.

A random poll of 10 underage girls in Toulepleu by aid group Save The Children U.K. in 2009 found that eight performed sexual acts for Benin peacekeepers on a regular basis in order to secure their most basic needs. “Eight of the 10 said they had ongoing sexual relationships with Beninese soldiers in exchange for food or lodging,” the diplomat wrote in the cable, citing information shared with the embassy by a protection officer.

On Tuesday, United Nations spokesman Michel Bonnardeaux confirmed that in April, 16 Beninese peacekeepers were repatriated to Benin and are barred from serving in the U.N. following a yearlong investigation.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/wikileaks-cable-un-peacekeepers-in-ivory-coast-traded-food-for-sex-with-underage-girls/2011/09/01/gIQA885PuJ_story.html

[aquart]

1. How traditional.

[MineralMan]

2. Very sad business. Not very uncommon, either.

I think such incidents have occurred in almost every war zone. Survival is a powerful incentive for many people. Taking advantage of extreme conditions is pretty common.

A lot of the guys at the little USAF base in Turkey where I was stationed visited the local state-run brothel, which was full of women who were there to pay off debts to the state. Most were widows. Many were quite young. I never understood how my fellow enlisted men justified their use of this facility. I could not imaging going there.

[Cool Logic]

3. Is this the same UN that elected Libya the chair of to the UN Human Rights Commission?

[bighart]

4. Not suprising but still disgusting.