Child sex-for-aid 'rife' in Liberia
 

Sexual exploitation of girls as young as 8 is rife in refugee camps and communities in war-ravaged Liberia and threatens the country's recovery after nearly two decades of conflict, a report said on Monday.

Save the Children UK said an alarming number of girls as young as eight were having sex with older men including policemen, teachers, aid workers and U.N. peacekeepers in exchange for money, food or favors like a ride in a car or watching a film.

"There are significant developments which indicate the communities are becoming increasingly resigned to the fact that sex in exchange for goods and services is another method of survival," Save the Children said in its 20-page report.

Save the Children called on Liberia's new government, U.N. 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.

Liberian society has been shattered by a 1989-2003 civil war which caused an estimated 250,000 deaths in a country of barely 3 million people, forcing around 1.3 million people from their homes into camps around the capital Monrovia or abroad.

Elections late last year saw Harvard-trained former World Bank economist Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf voted in as president, but her government faces a massive task to rebuild an economy and society torn apart by years of bloodshed.

Save the Children said that work would be undermined if widespread sexual exploitation of children continued unchecked.

The report's compilers spoke to more than 300 people in camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) and communities where people had recently returned to their pre-war localities.

"All of the respondents clearly stated that they felt that the scale of the problem affected over half of the girls in their locations," it said.

"The girls reportedly ranged in age from 8 to 18 years, with girls of 12 years and upwards identified as being regularly involved in 'selling sex'," commonly referred to as "man business," it said.

Humanitarian workers, camp and government employees and teachers were having sex with young girls, along with U.N. peacekeepers, police officers, soldiers and former combatants.

International donors, aid agencies and non-governmental organizations should all ensure their own staff and those of any local partner organizations kept to a strict code of conduct.

Countries which contribute troops to the U.N. force should also ensure soldiers who sexually exploited children are charged and those found guilty removed from the force, it added.