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The Amnesty International has accused Nigerian security forces of raping thousands of women and girls who escaped from the brutal rule of Boko Haram insurgents, and killing many people who refused to be moved from territories rescued from the insurgents.
In a new report released Thursday titled “They betrayed us”, the global rights group reported “how the Nigerian military and Civilian Joint Task Force (Civilian JTF) have separated women from their husbands and confined them in remote ‘satellite camps’ where they have been raped, sometimes in exchange for food.” The JTF is a militia working alongside the Nigerian military in the campaign against the insurgency in the Northeastern part of Nigeria.Amnesty International said it has collected evidence that thousands of people have starved to death in the camps in Borno state, north-east Nigeria, since 2015.“It is absolutely shocking that people who had already suffered so much under Boko Haram have been condemned to further horrendous abuse the Nigerian military,” said Osai Ojigho, Director of Amnesty International Nigeria. “Instead of receiving protection from the authorities, women and girls have been forced to succumb to rape in order to avoid starvation or hunger.”
“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,”Osai Ojigho, Director of Amnesty International Nigeria.
“The detention of women and girls on the basis that they were allegedly married to Boko Haram members is unlawful under international human rights law and Nigerian law, and is discriminatory,” said Osai Ojigho.
Read the full report here directly from Amnesty International’s site.
