French soldier charged with child abuse in Burkina Faso
Prosecutors in France have charged a French soldier with sexual abuse of two children in Burkina Faso, a judicial source says.
The source, whose name was not released in reports, said that the 38-year-old soldier was charged on Friday with assaulting two girls aged three and five and with recording pornographic images of the victims.
The man is one of the two French soldiers who were suspended earlier this week over allegations of sexually abusing the minors at a hotel swimming pool in Burkina Faso.
The pair were repatriated after being questioned by both French and Burkinabe military police in the West African country’s capital city of Ouagadougou.
Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre, Paris prosecutors’ spokeswoman, said the soldiers had been detained on July 2 upon their return to France.
The second French man, however, was later released from custody without charge.
French Defense Ministry spokesman Pierre Bayle recently warned that there will be no mercy in dealing with the soldiers if the allegations are proven true, saying, “For all acts of harassment, discrimination and sexual violence, it is zero tolerance.”
The men were part of a 220-strong contingent deployed to Burkina Faso as part of France’s so-called anti-terrorism operation, codenamed Barkhane, which was launched in August 2014.
The allegations came following another abuse scandal involving French soldiers in the Central African Republic (CAR).
Back in April, a UN report revealed that troops from France, Chad and Equatorial Guinea working as UN peacekeepers in the CAR, allegedly engaged in the sexual abuse of hungry refugee children at a center for internally-displaced people in the African country’s capital, Bangui, between December 2013 and June 2014.
Some 14 French soldiers with peacekeeping forces are currently facing possible charges of sexual abuse against children in the Central African Republic.
Paris deployed troops to the CAR in December 2013 under the pretext of helping restore order to its former colony after Christian militia began coordinated attacks against the country's mostly Muslim Seleka group, which toppled the government in March that year.
SSM/MKA/HRB
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