Human rights organisation, Amnesty International, has accused Nigerian security forces of abusing women and children taking refuge in Internally Displaced camps in the northeast.
In a report released on Thursday titled: They Betrayed Us, Amnesty International said after having survived the brutal rule of the Boko Haram terrorists, women and children have had to face further abuse by the military in exchange for humanitarian assistance.
“It is absolutely shocking that people who had already suffered so much under Boko Haram have been condemned to further horrendous abuse by the Nigerian military,” Director of Amnesty International Nigeria, Osai Ojigho said.
“Instead of receiving protection from the authorities, women and girls have been forced to succumb to rape in order to avoid starvation or hunger.”
The report further stated that as the military recovered territory from the armed group in 2015, it ordered people living in rural villages to the satellite camps and in some cases indiscriminately killed those who remained in their homes.
According to the report, the military was said to have screened everyone arriving to the satellite camps, and in some locations detained most men and boys aged between 14 and 40 as well as women who travelled unaccompanied by their husbands.
“The detention of so many men has left women to care for their families alone,” Amnesty International said.
Sexual Exploitation
It also accused civilian JTF members of taking advantage of hunger to coerce women to become their “girlfriends”, which involves being available for sex on an ongoing basis.
Ojigho said, “Sex in these highly coercive circumstances is always rape, even when physical force is not used, and Nigerian soldiers and Civilian JTF members have been getting away it. They act like they don’t risk sanction, but the perpetrators and their superiors who have allowed this to go unchallenged have committed crimes under international law and must be held to account”.
Deaths as a result of hunger
Amnesty International also reported that people confined in the satellite camps have had to face an acute food shortage from early 2015 until mid-2016, when humanitarian assistance was increased.
According to the organisation, at least hundreds, and possibly thousands, died in Bama Hospital camp alone during this time.
It also noted that those interviewed consistently reported that 15 to 30 people died each day from hunger and sickness during these months.
“Satellite images, showing how the graveyard inside the camp expanded quickly during this time, confirm their testimonies. There were also daily deaths in other satellite camps such as those in Banki and Dikwa,”AI said.
The organization, therefore, called on the Federal Government to bring an end to such impunity especially in the northeast.
“Now is the time for President Buhari to demonstrate his frequently expressed commitment to protect the human rights of displaced people in north-east Nigeria. The only way to end these horrific violations is by ending the climate of impunity in the region and ensuring that no one can get away with rape or murder,” Ojigho said.
The Military, however, responded to the report, describing it as malicious and untrue.
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In a statement by the Acting Director, Defence Information, Brigadier General John Agim, the military said it is unhappy with what it believes is becoming a frequent ritual by the human rights watchdog, which had previously accused it of rights violation.
In February AI in its 2017/2018 Human Rights Report had accused the security forces of carrying out widespread abuses such as extra-judicial killings, arbitrary arrests, mass detention in sub-human facilities, attacks on the media and journalists, violent crackdown on peaceful protesters, forced evictions, among other things.
It also said the Military had “detained hundreds of women unlawfully, without charge” in the military detention facility at Giwa barracks, Maiduguri, where they were subjected to disease, dehydration and starvation.
Consequently, at least 340 detainees were said to have died.
The Military, however, denied all the claims, stressing that troops constantly sacrifice their lives in the fight against Boko Haram and other enemies of the country.
They, therefore, called on AI to “desist from cooking reports from time to time to demoralise the entire military system and nation as a whole”.
