Liberia sex-for-aid 'widespread'


Young girls are the most vulnerable

Young girls in Liberia are still being sexually exploited by aid workers and peacekeepers despite pledges to stamp out such abuse, Save the Children says.
Girls as young as eight are being forced to have sex in exchange for food by workers for local and international agencies, according to its report.
The agency says such abuse is becoming more common as people displaced by the civil war return to their villages.


The UN in Liberia said it would investigate specific allegations.
The United Nations promised to put safeguards in place after sexual abuse in the refugee camps of West Africa was first revealed four years ago.

This cannot continue - it must be tackled

Jasmine Whitbread
Save the Children


But a study by Save the Children, which involved speaking to more than 300 people in camps for people displaced by the war, found that abuse was still widespread. The report said that all of the respondents clearly stated that more than half of the girls in their locations were affected.
Girls from the age of eight to 18 years were being sold for sex, "commonly referred to as 'man business'," the report noted.


'Clear priority'
One 20-year-old woman told the BBC that she had been forced to have sex with a worker for the World Food Programme (WFP). "This young man had been doing it to most of my friends. And the children too don't have strong minds. They will have sex with him to get the food," Konah Brown said.




The image of UN peacekeepers in West Africa has suffered But government officials and teachers are also contributing to the abuse, Save the Children says.
Teachers have demanded sex in lieu of school fees, or even just to give good grades the report found. "This cannot continue. It must be tackled," said Jasmine Whitbread, Save the Children's UK Chief Executive.
"Men who use positions of power to take advantage of vulnerable children must be reported and fired.


"More must be done to support children and their families to make a living without turning to this kind of desperation."
The WFP's Greg Barrow said the organisation would be taking the latest allegations with "the greatest seriousness" and was already taking steps to investigate them.


"The key here is to find what link in this chain of delivering food, and getting it to the people who need it, is perhaps abusing this position," he told the BBC.
The UN's Humanitarian Co-ordinator in Liberia, Jordan Ryan, also said specific allegations would be investigated.


"Unfortunately not all international NGOs have taken it seriously. But it is a clear priority," he said. "We have never done enough until there's a zero case load. Has enough been done? Not yet. Are we working on it? You bet we are."

heard about this and it made me sick to my stomach. absolutely disgusting.

Completely disgraceful.

So, basically, the children are hostages for food?

I cannot even express my disgust! :X

Why, oh God, why?

why is the chief exec of Save The Children UK saying men who do this should be reported and fired?

how about sodomised, jailed and beaten to death??? More fitting in my opinion.

Its very sad in my opinion, but the truth is things like this are gonna continue 2 happen because, many parts of Africa lack theinfrastructure and organisation to deal with probelms like hunger, poverty and War.

Foreign powers know Africa is weak and take advantage.

This is why I never really get excited about peace keeping. Anytime a country begins war, people suffer during and after the war. It pissed me off when I first heard about it happening in the Congo, and it pisses me off now. What even makes me more angry are the old ass useless local *******s who don't value the females.I rememberan American missionary/aid worker whom my cousin was workingon some projects therehad an stronginterest her for the whole time he was there. She refused his offers, but many over there feel they have the rights to do whatever. Alot of the younger girls don't know the food is SUPPOSED TO BE FREE, and those people take advantage of it. If I were home and saw it, Iwould probablyget in trouble depending on the how much of a rukkus I would cause. Another Liberianguy who went back home to film a documentary got arrested and had to pay a fine after he got out. Luckily he was released because his father knew the minister of security. I'm trying to go back and visit sometime before '08. I hope our law enforcement becomes strong enough to deal with this. I'll try to get some of our local organizations statesode to petition our president to do more about it and broaden/enforce the rape law.

Do we know where the UN "peacekeepers" are from? Which nation supplied liberia with these paedophiles?

DrunkMonkey wrote:

We mustn't forget Sierre Leone too have the same thing occurring.

I guess refugees and war casualities are not top priorities. Neither is protecting and administering justice for your citizens especially the most vunerable.

With all forces converging, we can hope visions of what peace means become clearer in due time.

This problem is as old as history itself.Poverty breeds desperation.Now the question is what will be done about it? Will Africa protect its women and children?confused3

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Liberia: Government And UN Vow to Investigate Sex Trade Report





















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UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

May 9, 2006
Posted to the web May 9, 2006

Monrovia

The government of Liberia and the UN peacekeeping mission on Tuesday promised to conduct investigations into a report by British-based charity Save the Children that government workers, peacekeepers and aid workers are giving Liberian girls money, food and favours in return for sex.

And ordinary Liberians told IRIN that growing poverty appeared to be fuelling promiscuous sexual behaviour.

In its report released this week, Save the Children said officials at camps for displaced Liberians, peacekeepers, government employees and teachers were among those abusing their positions of authority to have sex with girls as young as eight.

"This report will be looked at thoroughly and the Justice Ministry will take the lead to prosecute those involved in these acts against our girls," Mohammed Sheriff, Deputy Health Minister in Liberia's new government, told IRIN. "This is a very serious issue."

As a parliamentarian in the previous transitional government, Sheriff backed a widely acclaimed anti-rape law that made rape illegal for the first time in Liberia. Previously only gang rape was outlawed. Now he serves under Liberia's first elected post-war President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who took office in January.

The report, "From Camp to Community: Liberia Study on Exploitation of Children", based its finding of underage sex against gifts or cash on investigations late last year in four highly populated communities and some camps for displaced people. Some 300 people were interviewed.

"All of the communities and camp inhabitants described the widespread nature of the problem and the increasing resignation among adults and children that sex in exchange for goods, services and as a means of survival was becoming a more common option for children to support themselves and their families," Save the Children said.

The United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), which has some 15,000 troops maintaining peace after 14 years of brutal civil war, said it considered any form of exploitation intolerable and had begun its own investigations.

"A review team from the Conduct and Discipline Unit is proceeding immediately to the area where allegations have been raised against peacekeepers. This team will reiterate the organisation's zero tolerance policy. All specific evidence of sexual exploitation or abuse will be handled by the relevant investigative mechanisms," UNMIL said in a statement on Monday.

According to the UN, reports of sexual abuses have been levied against peacekeepers in missions in Bosnia, Cambodia, Congo, East Timor, Kosovo and West Africa. While allegations of abuse have plagued peacekeeping missions since they first began 50 years ago, the issue was thrust into the spotlight after the UN found last year that peacekeepers in Congo had sex with Congolese women and girls, usually in exchange for food or small gifts of cash.

According to the UN in Liberia, eight reports of sexual abuse and exploitation have been made against UN staff since the beginning of 2006 alone.

One case has been substantiated and the staff member "immediately suspended"; in another the incident was found to involve an employee from an unidentified contractor - in this case UNMIL cut relations with that organisation. Most cases remain under investigation, said a separate statement from UNMIL on Sunday.

In mid-April, UNMIL released the results of a public opinion survey on how Liberians regarded the activities of UN peacekeepers in the country. Some of the results were disturbing. More than one in five respondents raised concerns about sexual issues and peacekeepers.

"About 22 per cent of the participants (167 out of 770) reported that some peacekeepers had raped women and young children and had contributed to the encouragement of prostitution among young girls, leading them to drop out of school," the survey said.

Meanwhile Liberians interviewed by IRIN said the Save the Children report highlighted a worrisome problem and called on their government to act.