UN Denies Alleged 'Cover Up' of Central African Republic Child Abuse

The United Nations has denied allegations it covered up child abuse by French troops in the Central African Republic, calling them "offensive".

A high-ranking UN employee has been suspended on suspicion of leaking an internal report on the allegations.

A UN spokesman said the report had not been made public in order to protect the identity of victims, witnesses and investigators.

The report alleged soldiers assaulted hungry children in exchange for food.

Rupert Colville, a spokesman for UN Human Rights Chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, said publication of the internal report risked making some of those named in it "extremely vulnerable to reprisals", the AFP news agency reports.

He said it was "frankly offensive and highly unlikely" that Mr Hussein would be involved in a cover up, pointing out that he had commissioned the report and was the author of the 2005 Zeid Report, which he called "the definitive UN report on sexual abuse in peacekeeping operations".

"The allegations of what happened to these children are abhorrent. The details obtained in interviews with alleged victims and witnesses by UN investigators... are utterly odious," Mr Colville said.

But he said the leak was a "possible breach of strict rules that exist to protect victims, witnesses and investigators".