Boko Haram victims raped by Nigerian soldiers in exchange for food

Starved Boko Haram victims raped by Nigerian soldiers in exchange for food - Amnesty report


Many women and children are displaced from their families under the hands of Boko Haram.

Human rights watchdog group Amnesty International says they have collected numerous testimonies accusing Nigerian security forces of sexually abusing starving female hostages in exchange for food.

In Amnesty International’s findings, the Nigerian military and militia group, Civilian Joint Task Force (Civilian JTF), claim they are rescuing the hostages, but instead, the report says they have split women from their families and confined them in “satellite camps,” where they are forced into sexual acts.

“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. “Instead of receiving protection from the authorities, women and girls have been forced to succumb to rape in order to avoid starvation or hunger.”

In response to their findings, Amnesty International is urging the Nigerian government to act. They say since 2015, multiple NGOs and humanitarian organizations have made reports on the sexual abuse, but there have been “no tangible action to address the problem and no one appears to have been brought to justice.”

In some cases, the abuse stems from persecution of anyone tied to Boko Haram. Women held hostage told the watchdog group they were beaten and were called “Boko Haram wives” when they complained about their conditions.

In 2014, Boko Haram abducted 276 girls in Chibok, Nigeria.

Since 2015, Nigerian military ordered those living in rural villages to move into satellite camps as they reclaimed territory from armed groups. In some cases, inhabitants who stayed home were killed randomly, forcing others to flee. The watchdog group says they have evidence that thousands of people have starved to death in the camps located in Borno state of Northeastern Nigeria.

Those who moved to satellite camps were screened; men and boys were detained leaving women to care for their families alone. Many of those women described in the report said that soldiers would take advantage of their hunger to make them their “girlfriends,” which would include being available for sex. 

“They 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… One [Civilian JTF] man came and brought food to me," a 20-year-old woman whose name has been withheld told Amnesty International. The next day he said I should take water from his place [and 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."

Another woman said, “People are dying, [always there is a] burial, burial, burial. I was thinking maybe one day it will be my own.”

The watchdog group says that even when government and NGOs provide food, corruption prevents many from accessing it.

“Confining people to camps without enough food, despite the fact that those administering the camps knew the conditions were leading to deaths, violates human rights and international humanitarian law,” said Ojigho. Those who allowed this to happen may be guilty of murder.”

Nigeran president Muhammadu Buhari said in April that failed negotiations between the government and Boko Haram have suffered some “unexpected setbacks, owing mainly to a lack of agreement among their abductors."

Boko Haram a Nigerian militant Islamist group, which is fighting to overthrow the government and transform the country into an Islamic state.

Its name translates to “Western education is forbidden” in the local Hausa language. The group first gained prominence in 2009 when they raided government buildings in the northern Nigerian city of Maiduguri.

Boko Haram is a Jihadist militant organization based in northeastern Nigeria. 

It gained worldwide attention in May 2013, when the group’s leader Abubakar Shekau released a video stating his militia had taken women and girls hostage in response to the arrest of its member’s wives and children. He vowed to treat his hostages like “slaves,” prompting concern that they would be forced into sexual acts.

"I enjoy killing anyone that God commands me to kill - the way I enjoy killing chickens and rams," he said in a 2012 video released moments after his group performed one of its deadliest attacks, leaving more than 100 dead in Kano, northern Nigeria's largest city.