United Nations, April 30 (IANS): A United Nations aid worker has been suspended after being found leaking a confidential report on child abuse, according to a statement released by the secretary general's spokesman on Wednesday.

The United Nations, through its Office of Human Rights in Bangui, conducted a human rights investigation in late spring of 2014, following serious allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse of children by French military personnel, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to media reports, the French soldiers sexually abused starving young boys at a center for internally displaced people in Bangui, capital of the central African republic between December 2013 and June 2014.

"The unedited version of the investigation report was, by a staff member's own admission, provided unofficially by that staff member to the French authorities in July 2014, prior to even providing it to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights'(OHCHR) senior management," it said.

The staff member has been placed on administrative leave with full pay pending the results of the investigation, it said.