The UN will send home a unit of 60 Tanzanian peacekeepers following allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse in the Central African Republic, the UN announced on Friday.
A preliminary investigation found “credible evidence” that eleven members of the unit were involved in the sexual exploitation and abuse of four victims, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
Two of the alleged victims are children, according to UN figures.
Investigators also identified a breakdown in the authority of commanders and the management of personnel, according to a press release from the UN mission in the country.
The victims received care from humanitarian groups working with the UN, based on their “medical, psychosocial and protection” needs, he said.
The UN has had a mission in the conflict-torn Central African Republic since 2014, where thousands of peacekeepers have been deployed.
The eleven suspects worked at a temporary base in the west of the country. The Tanzanian unit has now been relocated to another base and its members confined to barracks.
“The unit will be repatriated once its presence is no longer required by the investigation,” Dujarric said.
The Tanzanian authorities have also dispatched investigators to the Central African Republic.
There have been allegations of sexual abuse or exploitation against Tanzanian peacekeepers – mostly in the Democratic Republic of Congo – every year since at least 2015, according to UN figures.
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