UNITED NATIONS (AP) – 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, the latest in a series of allegations against peacekeepers there.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is “personally dismayed and disappointed,” his spokesman said Tuesday. “We would like to emphasize once more that no misconduct of this nature will be tolerated,” Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
Amnesty International said the two incidents on Aug. 2 and 3 occurred as the peacekeepers from Rwanda and Cameroon were carrying out an operation in the capital, Bangui. U.N. peacekeepers have been in the country since September to try to calm unprecedented, deadly violence between Christians and Muslims.
The girl was hiding in a bathroom when a man wearing a U.N. peacekeeping helmet and vest “took her outside and raped her behind a truck,” a statement from the human rights group said. It said a nurse who examined the girl “found medical evidence consistent with sexual assault.”
The next day, after armed clashes with residents had killed a soldier from Cameroon and wounded several others, peacekeepers went to the area and “began shooting indiscriminately in the street where the killings had taken place,” the group said.