APA-Pretoria (South Africa) Eight South African soldiers have been withdrawn from the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) following allegations of sexual abuse levelled against them, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) announced on Sunday.
The SANDF said in a statement that the allegations against the soldiers included sexual abuse and exploitation as contained in a recent UN report.
Due to the serious nature of the allegations, the soldiers have been recalled home and would need to answer to the allegations, the SANDF said.
After receiving the UN report containing the allegations of serious acts of the soldiers’ ill-discipline and misconduct, the army decided to act on it immediately, the SANDF said.
It is alleged in the UN report that on October 1, the eight SANDF soldiers who were deployed in Beni in eastern DRC were apprehended by the UN military police for being in direct breach of the curfew time and other regulations related to sexual exploitation and abuse.
The SANDF said it only became aware of the incident through media reports days later.
“It is unfortunate that South Africa, as a troop contributing country (TCC), was not informed of these allegations as is normal procedure, but first learnt about such in the media,” the SANDF said.
It added: “The (regular) reporting procedure was not followed by the UN because neither the South African defence adviser nor the South African UN representative were informed as per standard operating procedures for all TCCs.”
National investigating officers have since been dispatched to the area to conduct a formal investigation into the allegations, and upon completion of the investigation, the “SANDF will pronounce itself.”
NM/jn/APA