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Why read? To understand how UN peacekeeping failures directly affect children born of sexual exploitation and abuse, and why current accountability systems leave mothers and PKFC families without support. This article offers rare, firsthand insight from affected families in eastern DRC, exposes the barriers they face in seeking paternity recognition and assistance, and provides concrete recommendations for making UN victim centred policies actually work in practice.

Why read? To understand how race and poverty intersect to shape the lives of children fathered and abandoned by UN peacekeepers in the DRC. This study reveals how biracial identity creates expectations of privilege that sharply clash with the extreme deprivation most PKFC face, amplifying stigma and social disadvantage. Drawing on interviews with PKFC and their mothers, the article shows how cultural perceptions of race intensify the burdens of poverty and offers policy recommendations to address these overlapping inequalities.

Why read? To see how peacekeeping missions can unintentionally fuel human trafficking in conflict zones. This article shows how the arrival of large, comparatively wealthy foreign forces creates new demand that incentivizes criminal networks, using Kosovo, Haiti, and Sierra Leone as case studies. It explains why bigger deployments can lead to bigger trafficking markets, and how these networks – once established – can expand into weapons and narcotics, undermining the very stability peacekeeping aims to protect.