U.N. rape scandal

Kinshasa, Congo

U.N. officials last week fired one of the 17 civilian staffers accused of raping young refugee girls in Congo. Officials also confirmed that more than 30 U.N. peacekeepers, part of a force monitoring a cease-fire in Congo’s civil war, are now under investigation for allegedly trading food and money for sex with minors. Congolese officials said the U.N. rape scandal highlighted the tragic problem of sexual abuse in wartime. Women raped by guerrillas or soldiers are considered “ruined for marriage” in Congo, and their families often reject them. Poor and jobless, they end up working as prostitutes for tiny fees. That fate is so common that victims have become known as “one-dollar U.N. girls.

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