UN chief orders external probe into claims of Central Africa child sex abuse
"His intention in setting up this review is to ensure that the United Nations does not fail the victims of sexual abuse, especially when committed by those who are meant to protect them," said spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
The UN said the review would address both the specific allegations and wider issues related to how the organisation responds to such sensitive claims.
Judges in France have opened an investigation into claims French soldiers raped children in exchange for food.
Fourteen soldiers have been placed under investigation, following statements by six children aged between nine and 13 that some were sexually abused by French peacekeepers between December 2013 and June 2014.
The abuse reportedly took place at a centre for displaced people near the airport of the Central African capital Bangui between December 2013 – when the French operation began – and June 2014.
The Central African Republic government has launched its own legal action against the French soldiers.
Devastating sex scandal
France's Defence Ministry says it launched a probe into the rape allegations when they were first received in July, sending police investigators to the former French colony on August 1.
But the damning allegations only became public after The Guardian newspaper broke the story last month.
The allegations were first collated in an internal United Nations report and only reached French authorities when it was leaked by a senior UN official.
Both the French government and UN have denied trying to cover up the potentially devastating scandal, but the UN official was suspended from his job over the leak.
If proven, the allegations will not only affect the French army but also the Central African Republic, which is trying to find a way out of a conflict that has killed thousands and displaced nearly 900,000 people.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
