Amnesty International is accusing U.N. peacekeepers of indiscriminately killing a 16-year-old boy and his father and raping a 12-year-old girl in separate incidents in Central African Republic.
A statement Tuesday said the two incidents on Aug. 2 and 3 occurred as the peacekeepers were carrying out an operation in the capital, Bangui.
Amnesty International said a spokesperson for the U.N. peacekeeping mission told the human rights organization that it has opened an internal investigation into the alleged rape and killings. The spokesperson also told the group that the Bangui operation was carried out by police peacekeepers from Rwanda and Cameroon.
U.N. peacekeepers have been in the country since September to try to calm unprecedented, deadly violence between Christians and Muslims.
The girl had been hiding in a bathroom when a man wearing a U.N. peacekeeping helmet and vest "took her outside and raped her behind a truck," the group's statement said.
The next day, after armed clashes with residents had killed a soldier from Cameroon and injured several others, peacekeepers to the area and "began shooting indiscriminately in the street where the killings had taken place," the statement said.
Amnesty International said resident Balla Hadji, 61, and his son Souleimane Hadji, 16, were shot and killed outside their home.
Spokesmen for the U.N. peacekeeping office were in a meeting about the Amnesty International statement and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The U.N. has been under international scrutiny over its handling of allegations of child sexual abuse by French soldiers in Central African Republic last year, and an independent panel is now looking into that case.
In addition, U.N. peacekeepers in Central African Republic have been accused in recent months of rape and sexual abuse. In late June, mission head Babacar Gaye in a statement said he was "outraged" by allegations that U.N. peacekeepers had sexually abused street children in Bangui.
And in early June, the peacekeeping mission launched an investigation into an allegation of child sexual abuse received against one of its peacekeepers in the eastern part of the country.
The Amnesty International statement said the group interviewed 15 witnesses immediately after both incidents this month, plus the 12-year-old girl and her family.
"A nurse who examined the girl found medical evidence consistent with sexual assault," the group's statement said.
"An independent civilian investigation must be urgently launched, and those implicated must be suspended immediately and for the duration of the investigation," senior crisis response adviser Joanne Mariner said.
Amnesty International did not immediately respond to a request for more information.