The UN has denied it covered up allegations of child abuse by French troops in the Central African Republic, after it suspended a senior UN official for leaking an internal report detailing the abuse.
A UN spokesperson said the report was not supposed to be made public in order to protect the identity of victims and witnesses.
Rupert Colville, a spokesperson for UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, said publication of the internal report risked making those named "extremely vulnerable to reprisals", the AFP news agency said.
Mr Colville said it was "frankly offensive and highly unlikely" that Mr Hussein would be involved in a cover up, pointing out that he had commissioned the report and was the author of the 2005 Zeid Report, which he called "the definitive UN report on sexual abuse in peacekeeping operations", the BBC reported.
"The allegations of what happened to these children are abhorrent. The details obtained in interviews with alleged victims and witnesses by UN investigators... are utterly odious," Mr Colville said.
The report says French troops assaulted hungry children in exchange for food.
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UN aid worker suspended for whistleblowing on sexual child abuse (30 April 2015)