Cover-up accusations over C. Africa child sex abuse 'offensive': UN

According to a French judicial source, 14 soldiers dispatched to the Central African Republic to restore order after a 2013 coup are implicated in a probe into the alleged sexual abuse of several children there. By Eric Feferberg (AFP/File)

Geneva (AFP) - The United Nations rights office said Friday suggestions it tried to cover up allegations of the sexual abuse of children by French troops in the Central African Republic were "offensive".

"I think any implication that (UN human rights chief) Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein would try to cover up sexual abuse (of) children is frankly offensive and highly unlikely if you look at his personal history," Zeid's spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva.