For months, the U.N.’s top human rights officials knew about allegations of child sexual abuse by French soldiers in Central African Republic, collected by their own staff. But they didn’t follow up because they assumed French authorities were handling it, statements marked “strictly confidential” show, even as France pressed the U.N. for more information about the case.

In a signed statement obtained by The Associated Press, the deputy high commissioner for human rights also says that her colleague who first informed French authorities last July did it because he didn’t think the recently created U.N. peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic would act on the allegations.

A year after the U.N. first heard allegations from children as young as 9 that French soldiers had sexually abused them, sometimes in exchange for food, it seems that the only person who has been punished is the U.N. staffer who told French authorities.

The deputy high commissioner, Flavia Pansieri, says she was distracted from the case by other issues, including budget cuts, from last fall until early March, when her boss, the high commissioner, brought up the case.

“I regret to say that in the context of those very hectic days, I failed to follow up on the CAR situation,” Pansieri says in the statement dated March 26. She adds that “both the HC and I knew that on CAR there was an ongoing process initiated by the French authorities to bring perpetrators to justice. I take full responsibility for not having given the matter the necessary attention.”

The Paris prosecutor’s office this month, however, blamed the U.N. “hierarchy”