UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced Wednesday he had fired the organisation’s mission chief in the Central African Republic (CAR) after a string of allegations of child sex abuse and excessive use of force by peacekeepers.

Senegalese diplomat Babacar Gaye “tendered his resignation at my request”, Ban told reporters at the UN’s headquarters in New York.

The announcement comes after Amnesty International accused peacekeepers with the UN’s CAR mission, known as MINUSCA, of raping a 12-year-old girl and killing a boy and his father during an operation in the country’s capital Bangui earlier this month.

That followed allegations that UN peacekeepers had sexually abused street children in Bangui and a separate allegation of child sexual abuse against a peacekeeper in the eastern part of the country.

The UN mission in the poor, restive country has also been accused of failing to follow up on allegations that more than a dozen French soldiers dispatched to restore order after a 2013 coup sexually abused children in exchange for food and other provisions.

In an interview with FRANCE 24, Gaye said his resignation was a “demonstration of the strong support, of the concern and the mindset of the secretary-general”.

“I’m very concerned by this situation, the mandated task of the peacekeepers is to protect and not to do harm to the population,” he said.

Gaye said the UN’s mission in CAR had failed to live up to its responsibilities.

“Today, I am giving a face and a name to this responsibility,” he said