Ugandan troops accused of sexual exploitation

Ugandan troops deployed in the eastern CAR to fight Ugandan rebels have sexually exploited several local females, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has reported. ‘Ugandan soldiers ... have sexually exploited at least 13 women and (three) girls since 2015, including at least one rape, and threatened some victims to remain silent,’ the rights watchdog notes. HRW workers interviewed all 16 in the south-eastern town of Obo, which has since 2009 served as a base for Ugandan forces in an African Union Regional Task Force set up to destroy the Lord's Resistance Army. ‘Fifteen of the women and girls interviewed said they became pregnant, but in each case, the soldier who fathered the child left the country and has not provided any support,’ the report stated. The Defence Ministry in Kampala did not respond to the allegations.