UN peacekeepers on patrol in Port-au-Prince after the Haiti earthquake

United Nations peacekeepers fathered hundreds of babies in Haiti then abandoned young mothers to lives of single parenthood and poverty, the academic leading a research study has told The Times.

Many of those impregnated were underage girls who traded sex for food or “for a few coins” as they struggled to survive in wake of political upheaval and natural disaster.

An extensive study into the impact of one of the UN’s longest peacekeeping deployments, published today on The Conversation academic website says “girls as young as 11 were sexually abused and impregnated by peacekeepers and . . . ‘left in misery’ to raise their children alone”.

The researchers investigated the UN’s longest peacekeeping mission, in Haiti from 2004-17 ALAMY

In Haiti, the research found the problem was so widespread that local people had labelled the children fathered