The protectors aren’t protecting, they’re raping. The fact that soldiers on UN peacekeeping missions often rape, coerce into sex and sexually abuse the people they are there to protect is known. But according to a Washington Post story, the number of these instances the UN has reported is low, as these assaults are underreported. Already, the numbers are staggering. The UN has or will expel 1,000 troops for sexual abuse, but when the Post recently visited the Central African Republic to get an on-the-ground picture of what is happening, they discovered many women and young girls are not reporting the wrongdoing on the part of the blue-helmeted soldiers. Of the seven women and girls the Post talked to, only two reported their assaults. Five of them are caring for “peacekeeper babies.”

Jazz Shaw over at Hot Air wrote of the problem, “There are obviously vast numbers of people in desperate need of help in some of these countries. … The resources required to help them all would probably bankrupt anyone. The United Nations would likely be the ideal agency to task with this in a perfect world, but we’ve already seen the results when they try. In the end, it’s likely that nothing will save these people unless a way can be found to stabilize their own countries so their governments can provide them with some security.” Of course, in a perfect world, the UN peacekeeping force wouldn’t be needed. In this imperfect world, they’re needed even less.