Thousands of women and girls who believed they were being led to safety from Boko Haram by Nigerian security forces were instead systematically abused in exchange for food and assistance, an Amnesty International investigation has revealed.
The shocking claims were made by more than 250 people interviewed over a two-year period. Some allege they were raped by members of the Nigerian military and Civilian Joint Task Force (Civilian JTF), while others say they were starved. The troops ordered civilians out of their villages and into satellite camps, where thousands of people, including children, have died of hunger, the report claims.
“The soldiers, they betrayed us – they said that we should come out from our villages,” said Yakura*, 35, who fled her home in December 2016, believing the government soldiers were delivering her and her family to safety. “They said it would be safer and that they would give us a secure place to stay. But when we came, they betrayed us. They detained our husbands and then they raped us women.”
Since late 2015, people living in rural areas in Nigeria’s conflict-ridden north-east have been forced by the military to relocate to the nearest recaptured government town, according to the report. Everyone being admitted to these towns has had to undergo military “screenings”, during which large numbers of people – primarily men – have been detained and transferred to military facilities, Amnesty said. Some women and girls were forced to undress and undergo their screenings while naked, the report claims. Only those who “passed” the screenings have been permitted to enter the satellite camps. As a result, most of those living in the satellite camps are women, children and the elderly.
Women consistently reported receiving food only once a day, often little more than a tray of rice that they would have to fight other women to obtain, and then would share with their children, the report claims. Access to drinking water was provided only once a day and for short periods of time. Some women reported lapping up dirty water from the floor out of desperation. Many of those interviewed reported up to 30 deaths occurring each day in the camps due to starvation and poor living conditions.
Ama*, 20, told Amnesty that she was raped after accepting food from a CJTF member, who then sought “payment” from her.
“[The soldiers and the CJTF] will give you food but in the night they will come back around 5pm or 6pm and they will tell you to come with them,” she said. “One [Civilian JTF] man came and brought food to me. He came back in the evening, but I hid myself. The next day he said I should take water from his place [so I went]. He then closed the tent door behind me and raped me. He said, ‘I gave you these things – if you want them we have to be husband and wife.’”
Many others told Amnesty they were coerced into becoming “girlfriends” – a euphemism for being regularly available for sex – to access basic goods or food. Some described being raped by soldiers or Civilian JTF members while they were starving or close to starving.
Zara* said she was raped repeatedly by a soldier who she had earlier seen beat her husband during a “screening” operation in Bama prison.
“The soldier told me he knows my husband and … [I should] forget about him,” she said. “When I saw him coming I’d run into the room and cover myself. He’d come and take the cover off me, then he’d take me in their vehicle outside the camp to a place to rape me. The next day he’d come and take me there by force again and repeat the same thing. I would be shouting and crying that I do not want to. He would force me all the time and keep telling me, ‘Don’t worry I’ll take care of you and give you money and I will take you to the hospital when you are sick.’”
Still other women described being “selected” by Civilian JTF members in Bama hospital and secondary school camps, then taken to Nigerian soldiers for sex. If they refused or complained, they risked being labelled a “Boko Haram wife”, and would face severe reprisals.
Those responsible for rape may have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, while those who “selected” women for others to have sex with may have committed enforced prostitution – also a crime against humanity, Amnesty said.
“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,” said Osai Ojigho, director of Amnesty International Nigeria.
“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 with 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.”
The report calls into question the British military’s support of Nigeria’s counter-terrorism efforts in the north-east, and recommends a UK-led investigation into the units involved in the alleged offences, which may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In a bilateral meeting last month with Nigeria’s President Buhari, the prime minister, Theresa May, said she was “saddened” so many girls had been affected by the security situation, and underlined that a £1m package of British counter-IED equipment would help protect troops and civilians in Nigeria from Boko Haram and Isis.
The UK has also been providing British military training and operational guidance to Nigerian armed forces, a move Amnesty said should be reassessed given the severity of the alleged crimes.
“If it turns out that British troops have been training or supporting any of the units involved in these crimes, a UK investigation must immediately take place and British military training to those units should be suspended,” said Oliver Feeley-Sprague, Amnesty UK’s military, security and policing programme director.
“The UK government must work with relevant women human rights defenders to review UK support to the Nigerian military, and ensure that any training it’s providing hasn’t contributed to the vile abuses currently taking place in north-east Nigeria.”
Amnesty Nigeria’s director, Ojigho, said he was not hopeful that the Nigerian government would take any responsibility for the allegations in the report.
“We expect the usual: denial, refusals and accusations of sabotaging the military, but we hope they will disappoint us and acknowledge these crimes instead,” he said. “These accusations are not new. But what we see here is a total lack of accountability, as well as a total lack of respect for the rule of law and human rights.”
*Names have been changed to protect identities
