“Petit,
viens,” — little boy, come here — a French soldier called out at a
checkpoint in Bangui, the capital of Central African Republic.
For
five months, an unknown number of people in the French forces, sent to
protect civilians from the violence tearing the country apart, forced
boys to perform oral sex on them, according to testimonies collected by the United Nations. The boys, aged 9 to 15, said they had sometimes been lured with the promise of military rations.
Now, nearly a year after the allegations came to light, no one has been charged, let alone punished.