Uruguayan UN peacekeepers investigated over rape

Haitian officials and the United Nations have opened an investigation into four Uruguayan UN peacekeepers in the sexual assault of an 18-year-old man. The investigation was opened after alleged footage of the incident was circulated in the country on mobile phones, Al Jazeera reports.

A spokeswoman for the UN’s Haiti peacekeeping mission, MINUSTAH, told the news agency that they are aware of the alleged incident and had immediately launched an internal investigation.

According to Al Jazeera, the one-minute video pans out from a sideways close-up of the alleged victim's strained face to reveal his body being held down on a mattress by light-skinned men wearing camouflage-coloured clothes.

Some of them are seen wearing sky-blue caps in the style of those worn by UN peacekeeping forces. A shirtless soldier is seen kneeling behind the man, slaps him and appears to thrust towards him.

Watch video here