United National Secretary General Ban Ki-moon removed the head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic (CAR) in the wake of a new sex abuse allegations against peacekeeping troops deployed in the country.
The U.N. chief announced on Wednesday that he has accepted the resignation of Babacar Gaye, 64, and pledged his commitment to bringing any and all perpetrators of such abuse to justice, according to a U.N. statement. Ban had earlier asked for resignation of Gaye, a long-time Senegalese diplomat and military officer who took charge of CAR mission in September 2014.
"I cannot put into words how anguished, angered and ashamed I am by recurrent reports over the years of sexual exploitation and abuse by U.N. forces," Ban told reporters in New York, according to the statement.
"When the United Nations deploys peacekeepers, we do so to protect the world's most vulnerable people in the world's most desperate places. I will not tolerate any action that causes people to replace trust with fear," he said.
The move came after Amnesty International Tuesday alleged that a U.N. peacekeeper raped a 12-year-old girl in the capital of Bangui last week, reported Voice of America.
"Our evidence strongly suggests that a U.N. peacekeeper raped a young girl and that U.N. peacekeeping forces indiscriminately killed two civilians," Joanne Mariner of Amnesty International said in a statement.
"When I cried, he slapped me hard and put his hand over my mouth," Amnesty International quoted the victim as saying in its report.
The U.N. peacekeeping mission, deployed in Central African Republic in September 2014, is also being investigated over how it handled sex-for-food allegations against French troops last year, according to Associated Press.
