"The children were vulnerable because they were hungry and their parents had nothing to give them, so the children were forced to ask the soldiers for food," she recalled.
"They took advantage of the children forcing them to perform oral sex and also sodomizing them," she said. "The moaning of children in the area often started around 10 p.m. or 11 p.m."
Another resident said other abused children ranged in age from 10 years old to 13.
"In exchange for cookies, the soldiers demanded oral sex," she said, recounting what the children told her. "Afterward they were given bottles of water. They even sodomized the children."
Paula Donovan, whose group AIDS-Free World has been looking into abuse by peacekeeping personnel, said she had been given a copy of the U.N. internal report that detailed the accusations. She said that 16 soldiers were cited, including one or two who the children said had been on the lookout while the abuses happened.
Children also accused soldiers from Chad and Equatorial Guinea, Donovan said. "A child reported that he had watched from a hiding place as his friend was raped by two soldiers from Equatorial Guinea," she said in an email. "One soldier stood watch while the other demanded oral sex and then sodomized the boy, and then the two soldiers switched roles."