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B’Haram: Chilling story of how soldiers torment male victims, impregnate their wives

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A chilling story of how Nigerian soldiers and Civilian Joint TaskForce (CJTF) allegedly subjected women in North East Nigeria has emerged.

One of the victims of the inhuman treatment, Fatima Bukari, said that their husbands were branded Boko Haram terrorists, brutally beaten and whisked away by soldiers and CJTF, who then raped them on daily basis in exchange for food.

She gave the chilling account when she spoke at the official presentation of the latest Amnesty International (AI) report on human rights abuses by Nigerian Army and CJTF in Abuja on Thursday.

Mrs Bukari gave the account of her ordeal in her local language while Hajiya Hamsatu Allamin, a gender activist and human rights defender helped her to interpret in English language.

“We are all IDPs. We were in our state, peacefully in our community but gradually we started facing certain kind of challenges. So when we were rescued, we were then brought into Bama with our men. We were told that we were going to be taken to the authorities for safety.

“Ever since we came into the Bama prison area, the men were subjected to all kinds of humiliations, they were beaten every now and then. They kept beating our men and saying we were all Boko Haram members and we said we were not. For example, my husband was being beaten by four members of the Civilian JTF and soldier.

“In fact they kept beating him for four days. After four days, we were evacuated and then brought to the General Hospital Camp. So, before separating us, they brought the men out, washed them up and then blindfolded them and transported them to Maiduguri, before taking us to Bama Camp. Before evacuating us, they told us that ‘your husbands have been taken to Maiduguri and you also will be taken’.

“That was how we were taken and dumped at Gewa General Hospital Camp.

“So, when we were brought to the General Hospital Camp, there was no food nor water and we had been separated from our husbands. The soldiers and the civilian JTF will come with their food and give to whoever they choose to give; in fact they have spoilt many of our women.

“The soldier who led the beating and humiliation of my husband, followed me to the camp with plenty of food and asked for sex and when I asked him ‘haven’t you seen my husband,’ he replied; ‘has anyone who has been taken to the barrack ever come back?’

“As I am speaking to you, there are many women like me who are left in Bama, some of them have become pregnant, some have delivered without fathers.

“Their children are fathered by the soldiers and civilian JTF. So, it is getting to three years, we are not in Maiduguri, nothing has happened except hardship,” Bukari narrated.

Both the Nigerian Army and the Presidency had in separate responses frowned at the report and described it as lacking in substance.

But Hajiya Allamin said that instead of refuting the report, that Nigerian authorities should rather act and bring perpetrators to book.

READ ALSO : Amnesty report on human rights violation leaves Presidency, Army fuming

According to her, more than 1,600 of such women have been registered by AI, adding that they are all willing to talk.

She said, “The military denying the report will not help the situation. These are real women speaking about their ordeals. We have registered 1,600 of this category of women, they are there and can testify.

“So, denial will not help us. Why can’t we dialogue, speak out so that the impunity could be addressed?”

 

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