A new and expository report has revealed the evils being committed by the soldiers posted to combat crime in the Northeast of Nigeria. A new report by the Agence France Presse, AFP, has revealed the crimes committed by soldiers against young women from Nigeria’s northeast, whom they are supposed to be protecting.
The report revealed that the soldiers have often gotten into the practice of impregnating and then abandoning the girls to their fate. One of such girls is Ummi Hassan. She is just weeks away from giving birth but tears have been rolling down her cheeks out of sadness.
Quote
“I was in love with a soldier who got me pregnant,” she told us recently on the outskirts of the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, in northeast Nigeria.
“He was redeployed when I was two months pregnant,”
she explained.“He was redeployed when I was two months pregnant,”
Ummi, 18, and her army lover kept in touch by telephone and she hoped to join him one day to bring up their baby in the economic capital Lagos, 1,200 kilometres (760 miles) away in the southwest.
But she said her dreams were crushed when he refused to provide money for her antenatal care.
Quote
“I don’t have food to eat, I only eat what I get from friends,”
she added.According to AFP, the coordinator of local charity the Fa’ash Foundation, identified as Ahmed Bolori, said the teenager was one of “hordes” of young women seduced by soldiers sent to the northeast to fight Boko Haram.
Quote
“A lot of young women have been impregnated by military officers who take advantage of these women,” he said. “Before the pregnancy is detected the military officer is posted to another place and he cannot be traced.”
Kaltime Ari, also 18, said the father of her young son was also a soldier. He gave her money for an abortion but she refused to go through with it, she said.
Quote
“I was four months pregnant when he left and I don’t know where he is now. His phone is not reachable.”
Amina Mohammed’s soldier boyfriend was redeployed to northern Borno state when she was three months pregnant with her son, Umar. Now aged two, the toddler has never seen his father.
Quote
“His colleague took me to Konduga (37 kilometres, 23 miles from Maiduguri) to see him but I was told he had been redeployed to Gwoza 90 kilometres away,” she explained.
“It was dangerous for me to go to Gwoza at the time because of Boko Haram, which made me come back and accept my fate.”
“It was dangerous for me to go to Gwoza at the time because of Boko Haram, which made me come back and accept my fate.”
The three women talk of futile attempts to force their boyfriends to take responsibility, visits to the men’s superiors, being brushed off with excuses and having to survive on charity.
Boko Haram’s Islamist insurgency has killed 20,000 and made more than 2.6 million homeless in the northeast since 2009. But Bolori said the abandoned women were just as much victims.
Quote
“They are invariably poor, hungry and uneducated which make them ready prey for the soldiers. Impunity also emboldens the perpetrators who go unpunished,”
he said.In October last year, Human Rights Watch said camp leaders, civilian vigilantes, police officers and soldiers had defiled and segxwally exploited women and girls displaced by the conflict.
The organisation said it had documented 43 cases of abuse in July at seven camps in Maiduguri for displaced people. Women and girls were forced into s*x and given false promises of marriage, food and money.
But they were abandoned if they became pregnant.
The government has promised a
Quote
“discreet and unbiased investigation” into the claims, about which President Muhammadu Buhari said he was “worried and shocked”.
Supplies of food, clothing and medicine have been irregular to those who have fled the violence; many of the women are widowed and the girls orphaned, making them vulnerable to exploitation.
Kaltime said desperate times have led to desperate measures.
Quote
“There is hunger in Maiduguri, people don’t have food and have no money to buy anything to eat,” she added. “This is why many young women like me end up sleeping with soldiers and getting pregnant because they are the ones with money to spend.”
Ummi and Kaltime said their parents kicked them out when they discovered the pregnancies. Ummi moved in with friends while Kaltime went to her godmother’s.
Amina still lives with her parents but says their attitude towards her has changed and she is no longer treated with love and affection.
Northern Nigeria is predominantly Muslim and conservative. Women who become pregnant outside marriage face rejection by their families for supposedly bringing them dishonour.
Quote
“In our culture unwanted pregnancies are really unwanted,” said Bolori, warning of the need to accept the children regardless of the manner of their birth.
“The danger is that the children born by these s*x victims will grow to be more dangerous than Boko Haram if discrimination against them is not checked.”
“The danger is that the children born by these s*x victims will grow to be more dangerous than Boko Haram if discrimination against them is not checked.”
| Posted: at | |
TRENDING GISTS 
"Why I Would Choose Davido Over Burnaboy, Wizkid" – Singer, Zinoleesky
VIDEO; Mark Angel Counters EFCC Over VeryDarkMan’s Arrests
Bride Arrested For Stabbing Her Husband to Death Nine Days After Their Wedding In Kano
PSG v Arsenal: UEFA Champions League Semi-Final Match,Team News,Goal Scorers & Stats
WAEC and NECO Set to Institute CBT For The Examinations Later This Year
PHOTOS + VIDEO: Jude Okoye And Wife Ify, Celebrate Their Son, Ethan, as he Turns 4