Nigeria rights group accuse military of attack on women and children

9/11/2024 6:17

        Nigeria's human rights
        commission said on Friday an investigation had found "no
        evidence" that the Nigerian military deliberately attacked
        women and children or carried out secret abortions in its fight
        against an Islamist insurgency in the northeast.
        
        The Nigeria Human Rights Commission, which is appointed by
        the government, had been investigating three Reuters reports
        published in December 2022 which found the Nigerian military ran
        a secret, systematic and illegal abortion programme and
        massacred children in the northeast, where the insurgency has
        been going on for 15 years.
        
        The commission said in a report that it carried out its
        investigation over an 18-month period and interviewed 199
        witnesses, including from the military, former militants, women
        who had been freed from Boko Haram captivity and local and
        foreign aid agencies. Not all of them were named.
        
        Among those interviewed for the investigation were Chief of
        Defence Staff Chris Musa, who at the time of the reports led the
        counterinsurgency campaign in the northeast, his predecessor
        General Lucky Irabor and former Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant
        General Farouk Yahaya.
        
        The seven-member panel which conducted the investigation
        included a retired major general, Letam Wiwa, who previously
        served as head of military intelligence. He is the younger
        brother to Ken Saro-Wiwa, the Niger Delta activist who was
        executed by the military in 1995.
        
        "There is no evidence to establish that the Nigerian
        military conducted a secret abortion programme in the
        north-east, ending pregnancies of thousands of women and girls
        freed from insurgent captivity," said the report, which was
        released at a press conference in the capital Abuja.
        
        The Nigerian military previously denied the findings in the
        news agency's reports. Military spokesman Edward Buba did not
        immediately reply to a request for comment on Friday. Musa, the
        Chief of Defence Staff, did not immediately respond to Reuters'
        attempts to contact him by telephone on Friday.
        
        Responding to the report's conclusions, a Reuters
        spokesperson said: "We stand by our reporting which fully met
        our standards for independence, accuracy and impartiality under
        the Reuters Trust principles."
        
        
        
        REPORT'S FINDINGS
        
        The human rights commission's report found that medical
        registers from five civilian hospitals in northeastern Nigeria
        showed that the facilities carried out just under 6,000
        abortions between 2013 and 2022 but it concluded that there was
        no record of forced and illegal abortions in military or
        civilian facilities.
        
        It added that access to military records of many sorts,
        including postings of personnel and hospital-related data, was a
        major challenge.
        
        It said the panel found no evidence to show that the army
        deliberately targeted children, but had found proof that the
        military attacked the Abisari community on 18th June 2016,
        leading to the death of 18 people, including women and children.
        
        Reuters reported, based on dozens of witness accounts
        and documentation, that a military abortion programme involved
        terminating at least 10,000 pregnancies among women and girls,
        many of whom had been kidnapped and raped by Islamist militants.
        
        In another Reuters report, more than 40 soldiers and
        civilians told the news agency they had witnessed the Nigerian
        military killing children or had seen children's corpses after a
        military operation.
        
        The NHRC said Reuters failed to appear before the
        investigating panel, adding that this "raises doubts on the
        source of the information and credibility of its allegations."
        
        On April 3, 2023, a lawyer for Reuters News, wrote to
        several commission members to state that Reuters would be unable
        to appear before the panel consistent with the news agency’s
        commitment to independence and impartiality under the Reuters
        Trust Principles.
        
        The Reuters letter said: "Thus, while we appreciate the
        hard work of the NHRC, it is fundamental that Reuters not
        voluntarily assist in the investigation of the NHRC—or any other
        governmental authority."
        
        Before sending the letter, Reuters tried to arrange for an
        outside lawyer to appear before the panel to explain its
        position and received no response.
        
        In the past, some rights activists have accused the NHRC
        of failing to hold the government to account, citing the
        agency's inability to secure prosecution of senior Nigerian
        officials accused of rights abuses – a lack of accountability
        underscored in United Nations and U.S. State Department reports.
        
        However, the commission also has previously been critical in
        some reports against the government.