"Two French soldiers on a mission in Burkina Faso were suspected… of engaging in acts of a sexual nature with two children," France's defense ministry said in a statement.
According to initial reports, one of the victims was a five-year-old girl whose father discovered a camera containing sexually-explicit images of his daughter. A senior police officer in Burkina Faso told AFP:
"There was a soldier who filmed the scene with a camera while the second touched [the girl]."
It's also thought that the parents of the young girl were friends with the alleged abusers.
UN peacekeepers around the world continuously accused of sexually abusing locals. This is a serious issue that needs to be addressed.
— Dynamic Africa (@DynamicAfrica) September 15, 2014
Paris prosecutors have reportedly opened up an investigation into the incident, while the defense ministry is also looking at the allegations.
"If the facts are proved, the army will show itself implacable against the two people involved," the ministry said.
Series of Abuse Allegations
The allegations follow a range of sexual abuse claims leveled against military and peacekeeping forces in recent times.
In April, a leaked UN report alleged that French troops stationed on a peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (CAR) raped children as young as nine in exchange for food and money.
14 soldiers were put under investigation amid further claims that minors were abused at a center for displaced people in the CAR's capital of Bangui between December 2013 and June 2014.
Locals Raped for Food and Medicine
Meanwhile, in a separate incident, another leaked UN claimed that 230 Haitian women, including some under the age of 18, were either raped or sexually abused by UN peacekeepers.
UN peacekeepers accused of swapping goods for sex: http://t.co/tSFHHYqhrg (where's the media fuss over this to similar to the one wrt ISIS).
— Maher Arar (@ArarMaher) June 11, 2015
According to the report, many of the women claimed that they were forced to have sex with peacekeepers in exchange for food and medicine.
The ongoing revelations and allegations of sexual abuse carried out by UN peacekeepers has once again raised criticism of the various controls and oversight placed on soldiers while on duty in many politically dangerous or poor countries.
According to the Secretary-General's latest annual report on the issue, the total number of alleged cases of sexual abuse and exploitation by members of all UN peacekeeping missions stood at 51 in 2014, down from 66 the year before.
