When African children's lives matter, perhaps ours will too

A few weeks ago, the AIDS-Free World's Code Blue campaign, a Canadian AIDS charity, published a damming report which contained some highly troubling allegations. The charity alleged that UN and French troops in the Central African Republic (CAR) had sexually abused at least 98 girls.

Amongst the victims, three girls were alleged to have been tied up and forced to have sex with a dog. One of the victims subsequently died. Even more disturbingly, it has been alleged that many of the abuses were orchestrated by a French General. Such revelations are not new. Sadly.

Allegations of sexual misconduct by UN soldiers have long been reported and documented in most of the 16 countries in which UN troops have been in operation. However, what seems striking in relation to the abuses in CAR, is the involvement of senior officers in allegedly masterminding the abuses and, that the majority of the victims here, are children.

Last December, an independent panel had already made alarming findings on the way the UN had responded to the allegations in CAR. It laid bare serious systematic failures by UN personnel and highlighted a culture of impunity, flawed investigatory mechanisms and inadequate structures to support actual and alleged victims. The panel made several recommendations to help ensure peacekeepers who engage in sexual misconduct are held to account and for the victims to be appropriately supported.

Since then, there has been no public report by the UN on the progress made in implementing the recommendations. There has been, to date, very few prosecutions. They have exclusively been of African Peacekeepers. It seems predatory peacekeepers from western nations continue to avoid accountability.

Last month, Ban Kin-Moon spoke of one solider found guilty of sexual abuse who was 'punished' by being suspended for nine days. Such 'punishment' makes a mockery of the suffering of the victims and is highly unlikely to deter predatory peacekeepers. Indeed, more allegations of sexual abuses have come to light this year alone. It was for the above reasons that we started a petition to primarily put pressure on the UN to hold peacekeepers who commit acts of abuse and violence to account and, to help ensure the emotional wellbeing & physical health of the victims in CAR are appropriately attended to.

In three weeks, we have managed to raise just over 5700 signatures. 5700 signatures may seem like a huge achievement until you consider that for any petition to stand a chance of being debated in the House of Commons, at least 100 000 signatures are required. Or, until you realise that 5700 is about 70 less signatures than the petition which was started to force Beyoncé and Jay Z to comb their daughter Blue Ivy's hair, a couple of years ago.

That is right, a petition initiated by a woman who was so disturbed to watch a privileged Black child 'suffering from lack of hair moisture' got more engagement and support than a petition to call for those who rape poor African children and vulnerable women to be held to account. At least, for now.

On social media, as Black women, it has been difficult to notice the significant proportion of people of the African diaspora simply ignore the issues. Our call to our fellow Black citizens to raise their voice and speak out against these abuses have often fallen on deaf ears or been met with apathy, indifference or contempt.

So as a community we have to ask ourselves some tough questions. Can we really hope to pressure western governments and international organisations to take notice of our plight, if we personally cannot take a few minutes to read on the issues and take a stand? Can we credibly continue to proclaim that all black lives matter when we collude in the silence and invisibility that affect the suffering of those at the bottom of the hierarchy of Blackness and thus, humanity? Can we continue to lecture privileged allies on intersectionality and educate them on the horrible magic that happens when various axes of oppression meet yet, ostensibly fail to use our own privilege as western based, often born and educated Black people to amplify the voices of Black people with no platform to be heard?

I really don't believe we can. Or that we should. There are girls and boys who look like our children or the children of people we might know who have been raped. Their plight has largely fallen under our own radar. Let's unite. Let us use our power to do our best for justice to be served. Let us all say enough is enough. Black people matter everywhere.

Ultimately saying so is not an act of pure altruism, it is also an act of survival. Indeed, we need to understand that white supremacy often starts with the most expendable lives but, it does not stop there. It never has. And so the impunity which protects western soldiers who rape and abuse little African children is the same impunity that ensures that state sanctioned violence and brutality against Black bodies is allowed to thrive here in Britain, in the US and in other part of the world.

The message is plain and simple; our lives as Black people globally will not matter until the lives of destitute African children start to matter. Please sign the petition here.

Guilaine Kinouani