I am worried over rape and sexual exploitation of women and girls displaced by the conflict with Boko Haram who are in need of water and food. There are several reports of sexual abuses, including rape and exploitation of women and girls living in many internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Borno, Yobe, Adamawa States, Chad, Niger Republic and Cameroun. The victims had been displaced from several towns and villages. This year, the Nigerian refugee crisis will be going into its seventh year. Since violent attacks of the Islamist group Boko Haram started to spill over Nigeria’s north-eastern frontier in 2014, Cameroon, Chad and Niger have been drawn into what has become a devastating regional conflict.
To date, the Lake Chad Basin region is grappling with a complex humanitarian emergency. Over 3.2 million people are displaced, including over 2.9 million IDPs in north-eastern Nigeria, over 684,000 IDPs in Cameroon, Chad and Niger and 304,000 refugees in the four countries.
The crisis has been exacerbated by conflict-induced food insecurity and severe malnutrition, which have risen to critical levels in all four countries. Despite the efforts of governments and humanitarian aid, some 12.5 million people remain in need of humanitarian assistance in the Lake Chad Basin region, with 5.3 million people remaining food insecure.
Borno State Governor, Prof. Babagana Zulum has urged the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to address the plight of IDPs in camps and communities. The over a decade-long Boko Haram insurgency has claimed more than 36,000 lives with property worth over $9.2b (about N3.42tr) in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States. Over 2.5 million IDPs are in need of food and other insurgency communities. Food interventions must be sustained, since majority of IDPs rely on agriculture as means of their livelihoods. Most IDPs in camps and returnees cannot access their farmlands, due to terrorists’ attacks.
Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP) have said that women and girls in the Boko Haram infested Northeast are randomly raped in exchange for food and water. The Project said that the incidences occurred mostly in the host communities and the IDPs camps located in Borno, Adamawa, Yobe States and Abuja, the federal capital territory.
The report analyses information collected from over 325 respondents in Borno, Adamawa, Yobe, and Abuja indicates high incidences of recurring sexual and gender-based violence, forced and child marriage and sexual exploitation in exchange for food and water. One woman sums up her experience with this haunting words, ‘I have been raped so many times that I can’t even remember’.
Several women and girls, including pregnant women, were raped, more often than not in the presence of their children, and many contracted HIV after these experiences and yet they were yet to obtain any justice for the recurring violations. Ensuring accountability and the provision of SRH information and services is central not only to an effective humanitarian response but also for fulfilling fundamental human rights obligations. The report calls on the Nigerian government to comply with its international and regional human rights obligations in regarding access to maternal health care services to ensure women and girls affected by conflict-related violence access comprehensive medical and support services, including psychosocial support. “Also, the government should ensure that there are functioning mechanisms to monitor, investigate, and punish sexual violence and other SRH violations by state and non -state actors, even in the IDP camps and host communities,” it said.
––Inwalomhe Donald, Yola, Adamawa State
