The United Nations said on Wednesday it was investigating allegations of sexual exploitation by two of its peacekeepers serving in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Spokesman Farhan Haq said the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) was looking into the charges against the two military personnel assigned to the UN Stabilization Mission in DRC (MONUSCO).

A UN source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the allegations, which surfaced recently, involved a Tunisian and an Indian.

Haq said more details on the case would be provided once the OIOS probe is completed.

Two years ago, UN officials uncovered evidence that Indian UN peacekeepers may have engaged in sexual abuse in DRC. That case involved the "abuse of young girls and in some cases boys by at least 100 Indian peacekeepers over a period of several years," according to a UN official familiar with the probe.

The 20,000-strong UN force, previously known as MONUC but renamed MONUSCO on July 1, has been embroiled in a series of scandals involving sexual abuse as well as gold and gun trafficking since it was first deployed in the vast, mineral-rich central African country in late 1999.

In 2005, the world body set a "zero tolerance" policy for its troops having sex with Congolese.
 

Source: AFP