The Nigerian military has conducted at least 10,000 secret and often forced abortions on women suspected of being impregnated by Boko Haram militants since 2013 as the nation seeks to crack down on the insurgent group, according to a Reuters investigation on Wednesday.
After speaking to victims, health care workers and military members, the report detailed a clandestine abortion program launched because senior officials reportedly believed babies born to rebellious fathers were “predestined” to “one day take up arms against the government.” Nigerian”.
A civilian health worker described the program as “sanitizing society” as women, largely without their consent, were given pills and injections to force abortions after being kidnapped and often raped by members of Boko Haram.
Chibok schoolgirls freed from Boko Haram captivity in Abuja, Nigeria, May 7, 2017.
(AP Photo/ Olamikan Gbemiga)
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Four soldiers described for the publication how their superiors told them abortions were needed to “destroy rebel fighters before they could be born.”
Soldiers detailed how the women would be separated in the field after rescue operations or later taken in groups to military facilities or civilian hospitals to undergo a mandatory abortion.
Some women who resisted the military’s efforts after learning of the abortion program were forced to undergo the procedure by being beaten, clubbed, bound, held at gunpoint or drugged into submission, the investigation found.
A 24-year-old woman said she was beaten and insulted while receiving drugs to force an abortion at a military facility in northeastern Nigeria in 2018.
“One of the soldiers beat me, saying it was a ‘bastard child’ from ‘a Boko Haram pregnancy’,” she said during the investigation. “He hit me with a gun.”
Four health workers told Reuters reporters the program was for the benefit of women and unborn children who they said faced stigma for being associated with Boko Haram.
FILE – Boko Haram militants
(AP)
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A number of women reported being blindsided completely by what was being done to them and told they were given drugs to improve their health after living in captivity, in some cases for more than a year.
Several women said they realized what was happening after they began to experience severe pain in their abdomen accompanied by bleeding.
Some of the miscarriages proved fatal, even for a woman believed to be six or seven months pregnant when given an injection.
“She was crying, screaming, rolling over and finally stopped rolling over and screaming. She became so weak and traumatized, and then she stopped breathing,” said a woman named Ibrahim.
“They just dug a hole and put sand in it and buried it,” he added.
Ibrahim’s story would have been confirmed by one of his companions with whom Reuters also spoke.
Four soldiers and two security officers also told the publication that they had witnessed women die during procedures or discovered their corpses later.
FILE – Nigerian soldiers man a checkpoint in Gwoza, Nigeria, a city liberated from Boko Haram, April 8, 2015.
(The Associated Press)
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The investigation was unable to confirm how many women have died under the program since 2013 or who was behind the clandestine scheme.
Nigerian military officials denied the existence of the program when questioned by Reuters, although the publication said it had reviewed hospital records, military lists detailing abortion procedures and spoke with numerous eyewitnesses.
The report found that Reuters believes the estimated 10,000 abortions since 2013 are an undercount, based on documents obtained and conversations with eyewitnesses.
Boko Haram has existed in various forms in northeastern Nigeria since the late 1990s.
Fighting between the government and the rebel group escalated about a decade later, as the group began targeting Christians and civilians more aggressively.
FILE – These girls have escaped from Boko Haram.
(AP)
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In 2014, Boko Haram attracted international attention following the abduction of 276 schoolgirls from the northeastern city of Chibok.
Dozens of the abducted victims remain missing and several mass abductions have occurred since then.
