Sexual abuse of girls by UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was widespread and ongoing despite many revelations and probes, the UN watchdog agency reported.
The peacekeepers over the last year have been accused of gang rapes, sexual harassment and bribing children as young as 12 or 13 with eggs, milk and a few dollars to have sex in bushes, on the bare ground or under mango trees.
The new report by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) concentrates on Bunia, in the eastern part of the Congo, where fighting was intense earlier this year.
"In our view the problem was and continues to be widespread," Barbara Dixon of OIOS, who worked on the report, said at a news conference. "We ran into fairly substantial resistance from contingent commanders."
The watchdog team, one of several UN probes looking into the sexual abuse charges, investigated 72 allegations against both military and civilian UN personnel, which resulted in 20 case reports, one against a UN civilian employee.
They fully substantiated the abuses in seven cases, with young girls identifying soldiers from a line up.
Separate probes included cases against another 20 soldiers, of which investigations were completed against six, who were either repatriated or referred to their governments for action, UN officials said.
"A lot of the girls were traumatized, by war as well as abuse, Ms Dixon said. "What they knew was if they wanted to eat, this was a way to do it."