About 1300 displaced Borno women have, in a letter to Nigeria’s
President, Muhammadu Buhari, accused the Nigerian military of ‘wrongly’
arresting their husbands and children, as Boko Haram suspects, after
which they were raped and made to trade sex for food in camps.
“We
were not allowed to leave the camp (managed by soldiers) and not given
enough food but instead asked to pay for extra food… when we didn’t have
anything left, they asked for sex; young women were to have sex with
the Civilian-Joint Task Force (CJTF) members and soldiers to be able to
feed their children,” they wrote.
This allegation was contained
in an open letter dated March 1, written by a group of displaced women,
who are mostly wives or mothers of arrested Boko Haram suspects who are
still in various military detention centers in Bornno state.
But
the military command in Borno state has vehemently dismissed the
allegations which it described as a cheap and baseless allegation
possibly crafted to dampen the morale of troops.
The women want
the federal government of Nigeria to release their husbands whom they
said were wrongly arrested and held in military detention facilities.
In
the 4-paged letter, which was also made available to PREMIUM TIMES, the
aggrieved women said they have unionised under a group known as ‘Knifa
Movement’.
They claimed the Nigeria military was holding 1,269
persons who are either their husbands or children, on the allegations
that they were members of Boko Haram.
The women said their
relatives were arrested between July and December 2015 and had since
been in detention in Giwa barracks detention center as well as the
Maiduguri maximum security prisons.
The women, who are all IDPs
from Bama local government area of the state, wondered why their
husbands and children would be kept in detention for such a long time
without trial.
The women claimed that apart from the
psychological trauma that they had to suffer due to the long absence of
their husbands, the military kept them in locked camps where they and
their daughters were forced to trade sex for food.
“Our story is a
story of suffering: In 2015 and 2016, we were kept in the horrific
conditions in Bama Hospital camp, which was at that time run by the
military and CJTF. We were not allowed to leave the camp and were not
given enough food but instead, asked to pay for extra food. First, we
sold our jewelry. Then we sold our clothes. When we didn’t have anything
left, they asked for sex. Young women were to have sex with the
Civilian-JTF members and soldiers to be able to feed their children.
Rape by the Civilian-JTF and soldiers were rampant.
“We were
starved and forced to give our bodies in exchange for food. We saw our
children die and there was nothing we could do. Hundreds of people lost
their lives in Bama Hospital camp – we in our group alone know 799
people who died. We were the silent witnesses of immense suffering,”
they wrote.
“In the last months, many of us have gone out of the
camps to farm and collect firewood to earn a living. But there has been
several attacks by Boko Haram nearby. One of our members lost her
husband who went out to collect firewood.
He had been released from the Giwa barracks some months ago. We are scared to go out of the camp but we do need to eat.
“Most
of us lived with Boko Haram for months and we know what they we are
capable of. They killed our relatives, abducted our sons, raped our
daughters. We consider ourselves lucky that we came out alive. Living
under Boko Haram was hell.”
The women said they were deeply
worried that Boko Haram members who were held at Operation Safe Corridor
in Gombe state are now being sent to their communities.
“How can
those criminals who killed and raped our people be allowed to live
amongst us again, while our husbands, who are innocent, are still
detained,” they wrote.
“We want to offer our best cooperation to
prosecute the real Boko Haram members. But no one has asked us for our
statement on what happened in the past years. We are pleading with you
to give all victims of this (these) conflicts the opportunity to testify
before a court of law.”
They said they were ready to participate in any further investigation.
We are not rapists
Onyema
Nwachukwu, who is the spokesman of the military at the Theater Command
headquarters of the Operation Lafiya Dole, described the allegations as
unfounded and misplaced and probably calculated to dampen the morale of
soldiers on the frontline.
On the claims that their relatives were kept in military custody, he said “that cannot be true”.
“We don’t keep peoples relatives in custody; those that we have in custody are terrorism or insurgency suspects,” he said.
“And
if anyone is not culpable after our investigation, they are released.
But those who have been found to have either actively or passively
participated in terrorism activities by bearing arms or providing other
forms of supports to aid terrorism and insurgency are those in custody
and would be prosecuted.”
On the issue of non-trial of the
detained suspects, the military said the concerned relatives should have
appropriately channelled their demand to the federal ministry of
justice which is the organ of government empowered by constitution to do
so.
“Trial of suspects lies with the judiciary and I believe
that they are handling it accordingly. We are all aware that the federal
government had instituted some special courts to try the suspects. It
is not our responsibility to try any of them. But if somebody is found
wanting after our investigations, it is not our duty to pronounced him
guilty or not guilty. But we tender our reports as the case may be to
those that will be prosecuting them.
Mr. Nwachukwu, a colonel,
also said that the women or the relatives of the detained suspects do
not have the luxury of determining the guilt or innocence of their
arrested spouses.
“The public must understand that the onus is
not on the complainant to determine whether their relatives are guilty
or not guilty,” he said.
“It is the court that determines that.
The dynamics of the counterinsurgency war is such that we have different
kinds of terrorists, like I earlier said that are either active or
passive supporters. Yes, you may not have an arm with somebody, but the
person may be aiding terrorism, either by providing information to the
terrorists as an informant, or may be supplying logistics to the
terrorists in their hideouts, and all these the wives at home might not
even know.
“We have arrested several persons who take logistics
to terrorists as their means of trade; so they should not look at the
issue on the face value and conclude that their husbands are innocent,
or they don’t have anything to do with Boko Haram. We really don’t
profile suspects as somebody’s husband or relative; all we know is a
terrorist is a terrorist, and anyone found wanting would be prosecuted.”
Reacting
to the issues raised by the women on their sufferings in the camp, the
military said though it was unfortunate, but the public should know that
it was not the military that initiated the circumstances that led to
their present plight.
“The public must know that it was not Operation Lafiya Dole that initiated that suffering,” Colonel Nwachukwu said.
“In
as much as we sympathise with their unfortunate situation, their
misfortune was not orchestrated by the operation Lafiya Dole troops;
rather it was by Boko Haram terrorists who had been killing, and
abducting their children; using their men and kids as foot soldiers,
burning their houses.
We have been the ones paying the price to
protect these women and their families. We are the ones that have been
at the forefront to ensure their safety, at the expense of our own
lives. We have gone out of our line of duty to provide aid support to
these people, we have opened schools in the camps to ensure that their
children whose schools were burnt down and denied access to learning get
educated.
Our soldiers teach them in the schools in camps! We
have brought measurable succor to these people. We have carried out
several medical outreach to help them remain healthy.
“So they
should not see us as their adversary; they should face the issue
squarely, Boko Haram is their enemy and a common enemy.
“We have
also rescued several women and children and their husbands from
captivity, we have liberated them,” he said, adding that this is what
they represent and not the other way round.”
On the alleged cases
of rape in the IDP camp, Mr. Nwachukwu said the military takes such
allegation with all seriousness even as he mentioned that the claims
were illogical given the role the military plays in the protection of
camps.
“I want to categorically state it that our soldiers are not rapists; we have no rapists amongst us,” he said.
“It
is high time we began to address the issue of gender based violence
very squarely. People should not wake up and start making blanket
allegation on troops. If you find anybody wanting, take up the issue and
make a report immediately; and not to sleep on it only to come out
tomorrow or after several months to come and say troops raped people. We
are not rapists.
“The people must help themselves by addressing
any issue of gender based violence very squarely and promptly, and avoid
making blanket allegations. If anybody is found to be involved in such
atrocious act, you immediately report that person, and so far we have
not received such report in the headquarters.”
However, he said
the military does not rule cases of “bad eggs” in the counterinsurgency
operations which he said was the reason the military court martial was
put in place.
On the allegations of soldiers using food as bait
to have sex with female IDPs, the military spokesman said such
allegation cannot be true because soldiers do not have access to food in
camp.
“Troops don’t share food in the IDP camp, they are not in charge of sharing food,” he said.
“There
are other agencies who carry out all those responsibilities; you can’t
say our soldiers, troops or personnel are exchanging food for sex. In
the first place, we are not in charge food. Our troops are at the
outside cordon of the IDP camps. They don’t have custody of food, talk
more of having portion they trade for sex.
“And anywhere our
troops are deployed, they are fed centrally by the military caterers who
cook for them” he said, adding that no soldier has dry ration that he
would use in exchange for sex. “So that allegation does not hold water
as far as the military is concerned,” he said.
PREMIUM TIMES
could not immediately get the officials of the Civilian-JTF who were
also joined in the food for sex allegation in camps, to react on this
matter. Efforts to get them to speak on phone was not successful, as the
lines remained switched off.
