LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Presbyterian Church (USA) has formed a committee to investigate allegations that missionaries' children were abused in two African countries between the 1950s and 1980s.

The Courier-Journal reported the committee will operate through 2009 and will hear any other allegations from the worldwide mission field that may come to light, according to the Rev. Marian McClure, director of Worldwide Ministries division for the Louisville, Ky.-based denomination.

"We want people who have had something like this happen to them to know this mechanism now exists," McClure said. "We want to be part of healing for anyone who has already had something happen to them that shouldn't have happened, but we also want to prevent something from happening again."

The three-member Independent Abuse Review Panel will first investigate allegations of physical and sexual abuse of children at a boarding school at the American Presbyterian Mission in Alexandria, Egypt.

It will also investigate charges of sexual abuse of children who boarded at Hope School in Elat, Cameroon, in the 1960s, the newspaper reported.

McClure said both allegations are credible.

The allegations were first made to a committee investigating similar claims in Congo between the 1940s and 1970s. An investigative report alleged a former missionary who died in 1999 committed most of that abuse.

That report recommended investigating the Egypt and Cameroon allegations.

The denomination has about 500 paid and volunteer missionaries in 60 countries, the newspaper reported.

Other Protestant denominations have recently acknowledged abuse in their mission fields.

A 1997 report documented cases of abuse at a boarding school in the African nation of Guinea that was affiliated with the Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination. A former Southern Baptist missionary acknowledged last year abusing children in Indonesia in the 1970s.