A report has uncovered that U. The Associated Press got hold of an internal U. According to the report, the peacekeepers exploited nine children in Haiti from to Ten years ago, the U. Victims and witnesses were interviewed.
Some of the victims were children as young as The peacekeepers used the children for sex and gave them food and money as payment. One of the girls, who was exploited for three years, said a "commandant" gave her 75 cents in exchange for sex. Of the Sri Lankan soldiers, were sent home after the report was released. No one was reprimanded. Some of them were raped, others were gang raped while others had "transactional sex" that allowed them to live through a life of poverty.
One girl said she served more than 10 Sri Lankan peacekeepers as a prostitute. One boy said he was gang-raped in by U. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that there were almost 2, reports of sexual abuse and exploitation involving peacekeepers from about 2 dozen countries from to Of these, more than were children. In , the U. The said report uncovered that women in rural Haiti were forced into "transactional sex" out of need for food, shelter, medicines and materials baby care.
The report admitted that while "transactional sex" was quite common in Haiti, it was underreported. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced last month that the organization is adopting new measures to address the peacekeepers' sexual abuse and exploitation of the locals in their host country. The organization laid out similar measures 10 years ago, but most of them were not carried out.
A woman with two of her children rest on the floor at the shelter set up in the Lycee Philippe Guerrier ahead of Hurricane Matthew in Les Cayes, Haiti.
