Two French soldiers suspended over child sex claims in Burkina

FRANCE has suspended two of its soldiers over allegations of child sex abuse, including with a five-year-old girl, in the west African country of Burkina Faso, the defence ministry said on Tuesday.

“Two French soldiers on mission in Burkina Faso were suspected . . . of engaging in acts of a sexual nature with two children,” France’s defence ministry said in a statement.

The suspensions follow an alleged sex abuse scandal involving French troops in Central African Republic (CAR), which caused outrage and only came to light after claims were leaked to the British press.

One of the alleged victims in Burkina Faso was a five-year-old girl whose father found a camera containing images of his daughter being sexually abused.

“There was a soldier who filmed the scene with a camera while the second touched” the girl, a senior police officer in Burkina Faso told AFP, adding the parents were friends with the alleged perpetrators.

After discovering the camera at the scene, the father went to the French embassy in Ouagadougou, which in turn alerted the local police who have launched an investigation, the source said.

Paris prosecutors also opened an investigation on Tuesday evening, a judicial source told AFP.

French military police, responsible for investigations into soldiers deployed on overseas operations, were due to arrive yesterday afternoon from Niger to investigate alongside their Burkina Faso counterparts, the source said.

There are about 220 French soldiers stationed in Burkina Faso as part of a French anti-terrorism operation covering five regional countries spanning from Mali to Chad. There are about 900 French soldiers in CAR.

A group of children in CAR alleged troops sexually abused minors at a centre for displaced people in the capital Bangui between December 2013 and June 2014, and 14 French soldiers are under investigation. — AFP