April 8 – A British United Nations official was recently exposed to be suspected of raping a 16-year-old Congo girl. After the victim’s family filed a lawsuit, the British National Crime Investigation Agency (NCA) refused to investigate.
The official worked in a United Nations mission to African countries in July 2017 on suspicion of raping a 16-year-old Congo girl, but the official himself claimed that he had “paid the girl £3,600 in exchange for sexual relations with each other”. .
According to the report, the victim’s mother reported the case to the relevant departments of the Democratic Republic of the Congo government, but the other party was obviously not interested, so she contacted the United Nations. The United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) opened an investigation into the allegations and pointed out in a report a few months later that the complaint made by the victim was “confirmed”.
The United Nations official involved in the case was fired, and the British United Nations delegation in New York was also informed of the case. Barbara Woodward, the Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations, revealed that her office transferred the case to the National Criminal Investigation Agency in 2018. However, the agency decided not to carry out a comprehensive investigation.
The prosecutor believes that there are too many evidentiary inconsistencies in the case and difficulties in conducting investigations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which prevents the case from meeting the standard of criminal evidence.
According to the British media, the British government has broad powers to investigate and prosecute crimes committed by its citizens overseas. The UK also said it was leading the world in efforts to improve the safeguards in its aid region, but the case was undoubtedly a mockery for this claim.
