A recently released study reveals a litany of abuses that left hundreds of Haitian women and girls, some as young as 11, "in misery" after being impregnated and abandoned by United Nations peacekeepers.
The Conversation, the academic site that conducted the research and published the findings, conducted interviews with 2,500 citizens centered on the experiences of local people whose communities hosted U.N. peacekeeping groups. Out of those, over 10% of accounts (265 stories) were of children fathered by U.N. workers dispatched to provide aid. The study did not specifically ask about relations with peacekeepers, instead allowing the subjects to discuss whatever they chose.
In one story, a 14-year-old student named Marie discussed how she engaged with a Brazilian soldier working in Haiti as a U.N. peacekeeper. When she became pregnant, he promised to help her but instead returned to Brazil. Marie sent the solider a Facebook message, but he never responded.