The United Nations-backed security force in Haiti, which is staffed largely by police and military officers from Kenya, has been accused of four cases of sexual exploitation and abuse. U.N. investigators said all four of the allegations were “substantiated.”

The U.N. report on the investigation was dated February 16, but it does not appear to have been disclosed to the public until an independent Haitian news site called AyiboPost obtained a copy and published an expose on Thursday.

A spokeswoman for the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) brushed off responsibility for the assaults by telling the AyiboPost that the “force deployed in Haiti is not a U.N. mission.” In other words, the security troops were sent to gang-riddled Haiti at the behest of the United Nations, but the U.N. is not supervising their deployment and does not take responsibility for their actions.

The OHCHR spokeswoman, Marta Hurtado Gomez, said it was “the responsibility of the mission and the concerned states to take the necessary measures to sanction those responsible for abuses, assist victims, and guarantee them access to justice.”

The AyiboPost was cool to these deflections, describing the violations in Haiti as part of a “long pattern of impunity” for misbehavior by U.N. forces. “In previous missions, hundreds of U.N. peacekeepers involved in similar abuses in Haiti were never brought to justice,” the news site noted.

The report allegedly viewed by the AyiboPost was a lengthy summary of the large number of complaints of sexual abuse leveled against personnel in various U.N. agencies around the world, padded out with a great deal of self-congratulatory language about all the firm measures the U.N. has implemented to address such abuse.

Thirteen pages into the 15-page report, the U.N. discloses that it “received four allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse involving personnel from the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) in Haiti” in 2025.

All of the cases were “found to be substantiated” by OHCHR investigators and were “referred to the commander of the Gang Suppression Force and the Multinational Security Support Mission for appropriate investigation and remedial measures.”

MSS steering committee member Fritznel Pierre told the AyiboPost that one of the cases “involved a young Haitian girl and a member of the mission.” Pierre had no further details, and the AyiboPost was unable to trace any of the other complaints.

The Miami Herald reported on Friday that one of the victims was a 12-year-old girl. The others included two 16-year-olds and an 18-year-old.

All of the case files list “PENDING” under the entry for “action taken,” with no description of the actions.

“Four cases is four too many. There must be thorough and independent investigations and if warranted, prosecutions. No impunity and maximum transparency required. And justice for the victims,” said William O’Neill, the U.N.’s independent expert on human rights in Haiti.

The Miami Herald attempted to contact the Haiti mission force commander, Kenyan police officer Godfrey Otunge, and MSS spokesman Jack Mbaka, but neither of them responded.

The existing MSS is in the process of withdrawing from Haiti, to be replaced by a new “Gang Suppression Force” that has been requested by the Haitian government, authorized by the U.N. Security Council, and backed by the United States. The first advance team from the Gang Suppression Force consists of soldiers from Chad.

This new deployment is supposed to be better-equipped and more lethal than the Kenyan police officers were, and it has been authorized to operate separately from the Haitian National Police (HNP).

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said on Wednesday that the U.N. Support Office in Haiti will provide accommodations, medical support, and “other key services” to the Gang Suppression Force.

“The Support Office has deployed two helicopters, which will provide the necessary mobility between Port-au-Prince and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. A small office has also been established in Santo Domingo to provide back-office support to both our U.N. entities in Haiti,” he said.

“In central Haiti violence has been surging in recent days. Thousands of residents have come under attack by the Gran Grif gang, which the U.S. State Department has designated a terrorist organization. Estimates of the death toll range as high as 80,” the Miami Herald reported.