Boko Haram: Nigerian Soldiers Raped Us In IDPs Camp - Victims Narrate Plight

Some internally displaced women living in IDPs Camps in the North-East occasioned by the Boko Haram insurgents have revealed how they were severally raped by soldiers sent to provide protection for them.

The ladies also added that the soldiers threatened to kill them if they ever revealed what they were going through to anyone.

The recent revelation came after Amnesty International released a report alleging that soldiers and members of Civilian Joint Task Force (JTF) demanded sex from IDPs in exchange for food.

Though the Military Authority, in a bid to debunk the allegations, led some journalists to various IDP camps to ask the women whether they were sexually molested and in the end, they concluded that no case of sexual abuse was discovered.

However, the IDPs have insisted that they were truly raped by the soldiers who told them to deny that they were defiled in the camp during the visit.

They spoke in a statement issued by a movement of women IDPs under the aegis of Knifar, led by Hajiya Hamsatu Allamin, a rights activist.

The statement published via the movement’s Twitter handle read: 

“The military came to Dalori with journalists to ask us displaced women if we were raped. Before the visit, the women were told to say everything is fine, that there are no issues. Is this the way our complaints are handled?

One of our members was there. She has an 18-month-old son, fathered by a soldier. She was too scared and intimidated to speak, so she said nothing. No one spoke. Why are we forced to be exposed in such a way?

It happened to us. It is real. And we formed our group to allow women to get accountability. We have said it before. We are ready to speak but we cannot imagine this is the way to do this.”

The women also called on President Muhammadu Buhari to hear their cries and investigate the soldiers who raped them when they were in Bama, Borno State.

“Our children died because there was not enough food unless we had sex with soldiers. We have said it before: we are ready to speak to any investigation team the President sends to us. We only ask that it will not be led by soldiers as they are also the ones who abused our women.”