Soldiers Are Sexually Abusing Us – IDPs Cries Out

Residents in an IDP camp

Women and children in the Internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps in the north-east have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to come to their rescue as they are being sexually abused by military men who have also suppressed their voices.

They admonished President Buhari to send an independent investigative panel to the camps to scrutinize the issue.

A report by Amnesty International alleging that soldiers and members of civilian joint task force (JTF) demanded sex from IDPs in exchange of food was released.

The military subsequently led some journalists to various IDP camps and at the end, they alleged that there was no case of sexually abuse on the camp.

“I have interacted with the stakeholders in the camps and they said that the Nigerian armed forces have neither molested, sexually assaulted nor raped any IDP as alleged by Amnesty International’s recent concocted report,” John Agim, acting director of defence information, said during the visit.

However, the IDPs have said they were asked to say “there were no issues” in the camp during the visit.

They spoke in a statement issued Monday, under Knifar, a movement of women IDPs in the region, and 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. Too scared and intimidated to speak, 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 can not imagine this is the way to do this.”