The latest: South Sudan Malakal Camp investigated by reporters

Reports of sexual harassment by aid workers at a camp managed by the UN first surfaced in 

. According to a joint study by The New Humanitarian and Al Jazeera, these reports have not only persisted over the past seven years, but have also recently grown. What’s worse is there is little to no accountability for the abusers. Investigations are “ongoing” and “taken seriously”, but no one ends up behind bars. 

The UN estimates that up to 5,000 displaced individuals may be coming towards the camp in Malakal soon, and present residents are concerned that this surge may escalate the occurrences of sexual abuse and exploitation. 

Aid workers who have worked at the PoC site told reporters that reports of abuse started coming in slowly shortly after the camp opened in late 2013. 

Residents said in the study that sexual exploitation was practiced "on a daily basis," most often by humanitarian workers. They 

 that UN and NGO employees rented homes in the camp to have sex with women and that UN peacekeepers paid bribes to gain access to women. Additionally, camp members claimed that a teacher had raped three girls and caused them to become pregnant in 2018. NGOs and UN organizations sponsor some of the schools in the camp.

For at least 18 months following the publication of the report, more reports of abuse persisted.

One child, who was 17 at the time reporters spoke with her, said that a local World Vision employee sexually assaulted her in 2019. She was 15 at the time.

She claimed that after they were alone, the man covered her mouth to prevent her from screaming as he sexually assaulted her. She claimed that because of her precarious financial situation, she proceeded to have sex with him for a further four times before becoming pregnant. She attempted suicide because she felt confined and hopeless before gathering the fortitude to escape the camp in search of a better life for her and her small daughter.

She stated, "What went through my mind was that my mother had no work and no money, so I decided to continue sleeping with him to help maintain the family."

Despite the fact that several women claimed that sexual activity was consensual, they also admitted to reporters that they would have been unable to maintain themselves or their families without the cash or presents the men gave them. They claimed they feared funding would halt if they stopped having sex with the charity workers.

Although the relationship was consensual, one woman claimed she became pregnant in 2019 thanks to a local World Food Programme (WFP) employee. However, most aid organizations, including WFP, forbid sexual relationships with aid recipients due to the extreme power disparities between aid workers and recipients. She informed reporters in December 2021 that she has started her oldest daughter, who is now 15 years old, on birth control because she is so concerned about the ongoing sexual assault.

According to Peterson Magoola, a spokesman for UN Women, "Sexual exploitation and abuse is a consequence of the larger misuse of power and gender inequality, which is embedded in existing social and institutional structures and practices." 

, "Consent is irrelevant; even if someone accepts a present or support, the transaction is still regarded as exploitative."

Many women claimed they had intercourse with men who promised to marry them as a result. Others claimed they were concerned that if they objected, the cash and gifts—such as cell phones—that were frequently given to support their families, would stop. One 25-year-old woman said that a South Sudanese humanitarian worker, who claimed to work for the UN's migration agency, IOM, caused her to become pregnant in 2017.

Another responder, who is now 21 years old, claims that a man who also claimed to work for IOM gave her presents in exchange for sex when she was 16 years old. Months after she gave birth to his child, according to her, he severed all relations.

The woman claimed, "I made myself have sex with him so he wouldn't question why he was giving me presents and money.”

 also spoke with humanitarian workers who had previously worked in the camp and who claimed that the problem's scope has gotten worse over time. Although there was no centralized structure in place to stop, record, and address incidences of sexual abuse and exploitation when the camp was established in late 2013, the relief workers claim that as early as 2015, organizations started hearing of such accusations.

People's trust in the legal system is damaged and their willingness to expose wrongdoing is decreased when offenders go unpunished. 

One mother expressed concern for her 13-year-old daughter's safety to The New Humanitarian and Al Jazeera, claiming that a local “Medecins Sans Frontieres” (MSF) staff security officer had attempted to rape the girl in October 2021. The mother claims that the MSF employee took the youngster into his home from the street and only gave up when his wife pushed him away and attempted to aid the girl.

She claimed that after taking the matter further with the local police, who wrote a letter requesting that the man be brought to town, community chiefs issued a threat to anyone who turned the man in, claiming that they would be held accountable for whatever happened to him.

According to the mother of the girl, "it's the result of men with money." The individual was then permitted to resume his job.

However, when asked by journalists through email in August, over a dozen organizations working in South Sudan refused to provide the current figures. More generally, numerous aid organizations have also pledged to expand the number of female aid workers.

South Sudan isn’t the only case - Haiti: 

The 950-member Sri Lankan Army UN peacekeeping operation in Haiti was accused of sexual 

 in November 2007 by 114 of its personnel. The 950-person Sri Lankan peacekeeping force had 108 people, including 3 officers, who were expelled after being accused of misconduct and sexual abuse.

Officials in Haiti claim that Sri Lankan UN peacekeepers who were charged with sex offenses back in 2007 even molested children as young as 7 years old.

The UN published a report accusing the Sri Lankan contingent of constructing a brothel near Martissant, Port-au-Prince, and charging them with prostitution, rape, and systematic sexual exploitation and abuse of kids. The UN's investigative arm, OIOS, stated that "the minors got tiny amounts of money, food, and occasionally mobile phones in exchange for sex." 

"Acts of sexual exploitation and abuse (against children) were frequent and typically occurred at night, and at nearly every place where the contingent personnel were posted," the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) stated after investigating the issue. The OIOS stated that statutory rape should be included in the accusations "since it includes youngsters under the age of 18". 

"The United Nations and the Sri Lankan government sincerely deplore any instances of sexual exploitation and abuse," said UN spokeswoman Michele Montas.

Ezhili Danto, a well-known female activist from Haiti, asserts

“If only 12 UN peacekeepers were disciplined for sexual misconduct and rape, this would imply that most of the 114 Sri Lankan soldiers who were removed from Haiti in 2007 for sexual misconduct and rape did not receive punishment.”

A new group of 400 soldiers from the Sinha Regiment of the Sri Lankan Army departed for Haiti in March 2013 as part of the UN Peacekeeping mission.

Over 100 United Nations (UN) peacekeepers ran a child sex ring in Haiti for ten years, but no one was ever put in jail, according to an Associated Press (AP)

The audit also discovered that there had been nearly 2,000 claims of sexual assault and exploitation made against troops and other UN employees globally during the previous 12 years. The abuse was much more widespread than first believed, according to AP. 

Amnesty International alleged in 2004 that UN and NATO officials were the clients driving the demand for the sex slaves, and that underage girls were being kidnapped, tortured, and forced into prostitution in Kosovo. At the time, the UN's office of peacekeeping in New York admitted that "peacekeepers have come to be perceived as part of the issue in trafficking rather than the solution." 

Reporters saw a sharp rise in prostitutes after the UN and, in the case of the last two, NATO peacekeeping forces entered Cambodia, Mozambique, Bosnia, and Kosovo. 

According to a Kosovo victim support group, a third of the local prostitutes were under the age of 14, and 80% were under the age of 18. According to Amnesty, the victims were frequently raped "as a tool of control and coercion" and were kept as slaves in appalling conditions by their "owners," sometimes confined to gloomy chambers with no access to the outside world. 

The Sri Lankan peacekeepers in Haiti demanded sex from boys and children as young as 12 years old. Victim No. 1 was a girl who claimed, "I didn't even have breasts." She admitted to having sex with over 40 troops between the ages of 12 and 15 to UN investigators, including a "Commandant" who gave her 75 cents. She claimed to have spent the night in UN trucks at the base. According to the AP, 134 Sri Lankan peacekeepers ran a child sex ring in Haiti that attracted children with candy and money. The majority of the peacekeepers were sent back to Sri Lanka after a U.N. inquiry implicated them, although none were sentenced to jail time. 

Internal Canadian government papers from 2016 indicate that the UN's processes for locating and bringing charges against peacekeepers suspected of exploitation and sexual abuse have "glaring holes," and that only a small percentage of cases may be reported.

In one well publicized incident, members of the UN peacekeeping force were charged with actively participating in the recruitment of sex slaves for a Bosnian brothel.

The UN's Sex Trafficking and Abuses

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