UN peacekeepers, aid workers and teachers are having sex with Liberian girls as young as 8 in return for money, food or favours, threatening efforts to rebuild a nation wrecked by war, a report said today.
Save the Children UK said an alarming number of girls were being sexually exploited by men in authority in refugee camps and in the wider community, sometimes for as little as a bottle of beer, a ride in an aid vehicle or watching a film.
"This cannot continue," Save the Children UK Chief Executive Jasmine Whitbread said. "Men who use positions of power to take advantage of vulnerable children must be reported and fired."
"More must be done to support children and their families to make a living without turning to this kind of desperation."
The 20-page document said local people reported sexual exploitation by peacekeepers in every location where a contingent of the UNMIL peacekeeping force was stationed, highlighting the continuing problem of sex abuse by UN forces.
Allegations of sexual misconduct have dogged UN operations in Liberia , Ivory Coast, Haiti and especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the world body has accused members of its biggest peacekeeping force of rape, paedophilia and giving children food or money in return for sex.
The UN force in Liberia said in a statement eight cases of sexual exploitation and abuse involving UN personnel had been reported since the start of 2006. One of those had been substantiated and the member of staff suspended.
"We are appalled with any activity, the sexual exploitation or abuse by aid workers, be they international or Liberian. It's unacceptable behaviour," Jordan Ryan, the UN's humanitarian coordinator in Liberia , told BBC radio in London from Monrovia.
Save the Children called on Liberia 's new government, UN agencies and donors to set up a government-led ombudsman office to ensure cases of sexual exploitation against children are investigated and promote a policy of zero tolerance.
Countries which contribute troops to the UN force should also ensure soldiers who sexually exploited children are charged and those found guilty removed from the force, it said.