Amnesty International holds they raped a teenage girl and shot dead a boy with his father.
UN mission in the Central African Republic on Tuesday August 11, 2015 opened investigations into allegations made by London-based Amnesty International that peacekeepers had raped a 12-year-old girl and shot dead a teenager and his father, Africa Times and other news agencies report. The accusations go that a man allegedly wearing the blue helmet and vest of the UN peacekeeping forces raped a 12-year-old girl in the middle of the night on August 2, 2015 in the Central African Republic capital Bangui.
The rights watchdog group is also quoted to have mentioned a deadly incident on August 3, 2015 in which UN peacekeepers began shooting indiscriminately while they were not under any threat. Amnesty said the soldiers killed Balla Hadji, 61, and his 16-year-old son Souleimane. Balla was apparently shot in the back, while his son was shot in the chest. Both alleged incidents took place during an operation to arrest a former rebel chief in the Muslim PK5 district of the capital that left five people dead.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is reported to have said he was “dismayed and disappointed” by the latest claims of sexual abuse by peacekeepers. But the UN mission, known as MINUSCA, through its spokesman Hamadoun Toure, said it was “not aware” of the allegations but was taking the matter “very seriously.” “We have opened a probe,” AFP quotes Toure as saying the mission would seek “established and verifiable proof.”
Amnesty said it had interviewed 15 witnesses immediately after the incidents, as well as the girl and members of her family. A nurse who examined the girl, according Africa Times, found medical evidence consistent with sexual assault. “The girl had been hiding in a bathroom during a house search at approximately 2:00 am on August 2, 2015. A man allegedly wearing the blue helmet and vest of the UN peacekeeping forces took her outside and raped her behind a truck,” a statement said. “When I cried, he slapped me hard and put his hand over my mouth,” the girl is quoted to have told Amnesty.
