UN troops accused of targeting Lake Chad females

Communities in the Lake Chad Basin are accusing UN security personnel deployed to fight insurgency in the area of eloping with female residents. This was contained in a report released by the UN Development Programme titled Perspectives from local communities on stabilisation and building peace in the Lake Chad Basin. The report said the issue had damaged relationships between the UN and the affected communities. ‘In Cameroon, relations between security agencies and communities seemed particularly strained by sexual and gender-based violence perpetrated by members of the security agencies.’ The Daily Trust reports that it highlighted a case in Limani where a woman gave birth to a child that was fathered by a soldier, ‘resulting in her being excluded from her home due to the taboos associated with the incident’. Despite these problems, the report notes that there were calls for the deployment of more troops and security forces in the area.