Amnesty accuses Nigerian troops of raping women rescued from Boko Haram
Amnesty accuses Nigerian troops of raping women rescued from Boko Haram
Displaced women in a camp in Maiduguri, Nigeria's Borno State on 22 February 2018.
Lagos, Nigeria (CNN)Women and girls who have fled terrorist group Boko Haram are being raped by Nigerian soldiers, starved and forced to exchange food for sex, according to claims in a new report by human rights group Amnesty International. Thousands of these women have died because of lack of food in camps for internally displaced people in Nigeria's northeast after they were rescued from Boko Haram, Amnesty says. In the report titled "They betrayed us," it is alleged that five women said they were raped by soldiers in late 2015 and early 2016 in a displacement camp in Bama, Borno state.
'Boko Haram wives'
Women interviewed by Amnesty said they were beaten and called "Boko Haram wives" by security officials whenever they complained about their treatment. The report says that members of the Nigerian military and a local vigilante group Civilian Joint Task Force (Civilian JTF) "separated women from their husbands and confined them in remote 'satellite camps' where they were raped, sometimes in exchange for food." Ten women in the Bama camp told Amnesty they were forced to date security officials to get food. One woman said a member of the JTF vigilante group raped her after he brought her food, telling her: "I gave you these things, if you want them, we have to be husband and wife." "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," Osai Ojigho, Director of Amnesty International Nigeria said.
. . . .
Amnesty said it had collected evidence that thousands of people have starved to death in displacement camps since 2015. In the report, In the women alleged that 15 to 30 people died each day between 2015 and 2016 due to lack of food in these camps.The human rights group said satellite images of an expanding graveyard in one of the camps during the time confirmed their testimonies. In a 2016 report, another rights group, Human Rights Watch, said it had documented 43 cases of sexual violence against women by soldiers in displacement camps in northern Nigeria, forcing the Nigeria government to investigate.
Propaganda
Nigerian army spokesman John Agim denied the allegations in the Amnesty report, branding them "propaganda." He said the army hasn't been deployed to displacement camps, which he said are run by the police, local vigilante groups and NGOs. "I wonder where Amnesty interviewed women who said they saw soldiers in these camps hoarding food and raping women?" Agim asked. Agim accused the human rights group of republishing claims that had been investigated by the Nigerian government and had been found to be false. "Amnesty wrote the same allegations in a report in 2015 and it was investigated then and found not to be true. Why are they presenting them in 2018 after investigations? It is all propaganda and when they continue to propagate these reports, it assumes the property of truth when its not refuted," Agim told CNN.
. . . .
https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/24/africa/nigerian-army-amnesty-report-rape-intl/index.html