UNITED NATIONS: US Ambassador Nikki Haley on Thursday urged all countries that provide troops for UN peacekeeping missions to hold soldiers accountable for sexual abuse and exploitation, an appeal that came after she cited an Associated Press investigation into a child sex ring in Haiti involving Sri Lankan peacekeepers.
She also warned that “countries that refuse to hold their soldiers accountable must recognize that this either stops or their troops will go home and their financial compensation will end.”
Haley was speaking after the Security Council voted unanimously to end the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti in mid-October, sending a strong signal that the international community believes the impoverished Caribbean nation is stabilizing after successful elections.
But the peacekeepers will leave with a tarnished legacy. UN troops from Nepal are widely blamed for introducing cholera that has killed at least 9,500 people in Haiti since 2010 and some troops have been implicated in sexual abuse.
“What do we say to these kids? Did these peacekeepers keep them safe?” Haley asked, citing the AP’s investigation detailing how at least 134 Sri Lankan peacekeepers sexually abused and exploited nine Haitian children between 2004 and 2007.
Sri Lanka never jailed any soldiers implicated in the abuse yet the country was allowed to send troops to other UN missions.
Haley said after the vote that while the departure of the peacekeepers “is seen as a success, unfortunately it’s a nightmare for many in Haiti who will never be able to forget and live with brutal scars.”
Nine children in the Haiti sex ring — some as young as 12 — told UN investigators how Sri Lankan peacekeepers offered them snacks or money for sex. One boy said he slept with as many as 100 soldiers, averaging about four per day.
The details of the sex ring were part of a larger AP investigation of UN missions during the past 12 years that found an estimated 2,000 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers and UN personnel around the world.
In Haiti, the 2,370 military personnel will gradually leave over the next six months. A new peacekeeping mission will follow for an initial period of six months, comprised of just 1,275 police to continue training the national police force and assist in developing the rule of law and promoting human rights in Haiti.
Haley said the United States and the international community are committed to Haiti’s “democratic development, independence and economic growth.”
“We will, however, continue to push for accountability of those troops in Haiti as well as all troop contributing countries involved in peacekeeping efforts,” she said.
“We owe it to the vulnerable in these countries who desperately need peace and security,” she told Security Council members. “I ask that you join me in this effort.”
Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recommended that peacekeepers accused of sexual abuse and exploitation be court martialed in the countries where the alleged incidents take place and said the UN would withhold payments to peacekeepers facing credible allegations.
Responding to the AP report, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric had said Wednesday: “We need to address the problem, first, for the victims, but also to ensure that the perception of peacekeeping is not a wrong one.”
He stressed it is dangerous work done honorably by “the vast majority” of peacekeepers.
Mark Schuller, an academic studying what happens when international organizations leave countries like Haiti, said for Haitians, the UN has garnered a “love-hate” relationship, but the real issue is lack of accountability.
“The UN is not accountable to the Haitian government or people. That creates a culture of implied immunity,” said Schuller, a professor at N. Illinois University’s Department of Ethnology who spends part of his time in Haiti.
Jacqueline Nono said she was 17 when she started having sex with a Sri Lankan peacekeeper for money or gifts. She said the sex was consensual but she needed the money to pay for her two children.
“I’ve heard the stories about Sri Lankans abusing Haitians, but I was treated well,” said the 24-year-old in Port-au-Prince.
For Jean-Marie Pascal, there is no love lost for the United Nations.
She said a UN peacekeeper sexually assaulted her shortly after troops arrived in 2004 to quell instability following President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s ouster. After the 2010 earthquake struck, her two cousins died from a strain of cholera linked to UN peacekeepers from Nepal.
“Haiti has been a playground for the United Nations,” the 43-year-old shop assistant told the AP as part of its investigation.
The United Nations also suffered in Haiti, losing nearly 100 peacekeepers and personnel in the 2010 earthquake that killed as many as 300,000 people.
US says countries must punish UN troops for sexual abuse
US says countries must punish UN troops for sexual abuse
India’s space industry gears up for human spaceflight tests, commercial expansion in 2026
- ISRO plans to complete 7 space missions by March, including Gaganyaan mission test
- In 2025, India’s space sector had over 300 startups operating in rocket launches, satellites, analysis
NEW DELHI: After sending its first astronaut to the International Space Station, autonomously docking two satellites, and launching the heaviest payload this year, India’s space industry is preparing for the first uncrewed test of its human spaceflight program in 2026.
In 2025, India’s space program spearheaded by the Indian Space Research Organisation marked several milestones, starting in January, when it became the fourth country to perform space docking — connecting two spacecraft in orbit, which is a capability crucial for future space stations and deep-space missions.
In June, Shubhanshu Shukla, an Indian Air Force pilot, flew to the ISS as part of the Axiom 4 mission. He became the second Indian national in space, after Rakesh Sharma in 1984.
A month later, ISRO, in collaboration with NASA, launched a joint observation satellite to provide high-resolution radar imagery of the Earth, and in December capped the year by deploying the BlueBird Block 2, the heaviest payload ever launched from Indian soil.
It “marked a decisive year for India’s space sector as policy reforms translated into tangible execution across launch, satellite manufacturing, Earth observation, space data, and satellite communications,” said Lt. Gen. AK Bhatt (retd.), director general of the Indian Space Association.
The year also saw new contracts, production lines, launch vehicles moving closer to operational readiness, and growth in India’s $9 billion space economy driven largely by the private industry and public–private partnerships, which Bhatt expected to expand in the coming year.
“The Indian space sector is poised for a transformative 2026, with ISRO’s rigorous seven-mission schedule by March,” he told Arab News.
ISRO last month announced plans to complete seven space missions by March 2026, including the first uncrewed test flight of India’s Gaganyaan human spaceflight program.
Another mission will be EOS‑N1, where ISRO and India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation will launch an Earth observation satellite for strategic and surveillance applications.
The private industry will also have its debut by HAL-L&T launching the first fully indigenously manufactured Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle early next year, which will carry OceanSat-3A, an Earth observation satellite for oceanography and environmental monitoring.
“Complementing this, private innovators like Skyroot Aerospace with its Vikram-I orbital launch in January-February, GalaxEye’s pioneering multi-sensor Drishti satellite in Q1 and Dhruva Space’s LEAP-2 on the HAL-L&T PSLV and Agnibaan rocket by Agnikul in Q3 will further confirm the vitality of our ecosystem,” Bhatt said.
Over the past few years, India has been establishing its position in the global space industry.
In August 2023, ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 moon rover made history by landing on the lunar surface, making India the first country to land near the lunar south pole and the fourth to land on the moon — after the US, the Soviet Union, and China.
A month later, it launched Aditya-L1 in 2023 — the country’s first solar observation mission, and the world’s second after the US Parker Solar Probe in 2021.
India currently accounts for about 2 percent of the $450 billion global space economy, with its share expected to rise to nearly 8 percent by 2033, driven largely by private companies.
In 2025, the country’s space sector had more than 300 active startups operating in rocket launches, satellites, Earth observation, satellite communications, propulsion, electronics, space monitoring, and data analytics, according to Indian Space Association data.
“As launch capacity improves and satellite constellations scale up, the real value creation is now shifting closer to applications, analytics and decision-making. From agriculture and climate monitoring to infrastructure planning and national security, satellite data is steadily moving from being a niche input to a mainstream business and governance tool,” said Amit Kumar, co-founder and chief operating officer of Suhora Technologies, a space data company that turns satellite imagery and artificial intelligence‑driven analytics into actionable intelligence.
“As we move into 2026, the opportunity lies in translating India’s space capabilities into everyday insights that solve real-world problems at scale.”
