SAMUEL OKIROR THE United Nations has launched an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse and the exploitation of vulnerable women by members of its staff in Uganda’s drought-stricken northeastern Karamoja region. The inquiry by the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services, which began early this month, follows allegations by a whistleblower of sexual abuse and exploitation by a United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) staffer against a “female victim” – and a more general pattern of serious sexual misconduct by other UN staff working in what is Uganda’s poorest region. The allegations centre on the World Food Programme compound in the…