Over a dozen Somali women and girls were raped by African Union troops stationed in the country to help battle Islamist militants, according to Human Rights Watch.
Soldiers for the AU Mission in Somalia, or Amisom, allegedly took advantage of their impoverished victims when they arrived at union bases in the capital Mogadishu seeking water or medicine, HRW told the BBC.
Some 22,000 AU soldiers, most from Uganda and Burundi, are in the east African country fighting militants from the al-Qaida linked group al-Shabaab. Thousands of civilians fled their homes when the country was thrown into chaos with the ousting of Somalia's former ruler Siad Barre in 1991.
"Some Amisom soldiers have used humanitarian assistance, provided by the mission, to coerce vulnerable women and girls into sexual activity," HRW told the BBC.
The group interviewed 21 females, both adult and underage, who said they were raped by Ugandan and Burundian soldiers.
"A number of the women and girls...said that they were initially approached for sex in return for money or raped while seeking medical assistance and water on the Amisom bases, particularly the Burundian contingent's base."
One 15-year-old said she went to an AU base in search of medicine for her sick mother when she was assaulted. The soldier also tried to pay her after the assault, she told HRW.
"First he ripped off my hijab [headscarf] and then he attacked me," the girl told HRW, according to the BBC.
This is not the first time AU troops have been accused of rape since they were deployed to Somalia in 2007. In 2013, the union and the country's government investigated claims that both AU and government soldiers gang-raped a woman in Mogadishu. The allegations were dismissed, even though the victim was never interviewed, the BBC reported.
There were 1,700 rapes at Somali refugee camps in 2012, most of which were believed to have been committed by security forces, according to the United Nations.
The AU said it will investigate the latest accusations.
