Human Rights Group Exonerates Nigerian Military Over Human Rights Violations In IDP Camps

Recall that the President had ordered the investigation into allegations of misconduct by soldiers at IDP Camps in Bama, Borno state. Reports had claimed that soldiers were sexually abusing IDPs and also violating human rights. These reports were popularized by Amnesty International and other Civil Society Organizations.

GAW in its report hinted that the allegations informed the investigation of the claims being made by IDPS, especially the women folks. It explained that it deployed its staff and researchers to conduct interviews with survivors of the reported harassment in the region as well as carry out on the spot assessment of the situation. The group concluded that most IDPs willingly entered into sexual relations sometimes in order to supplement their lean resources stressing that they resort to false accusation when such relationships end abruptly. The report read in part
“There are genuine rape survivors that were able to establish that they were violated against their will in incidents that were frequent and continued for some length of time.

“The accounts of rape were tempered the survivors’ trauma, social stigmatization and ostracization, fear of reprisal, belief that the rapists would not be punished and resignation to fate. These distortions were further amplified, first by the reportage and later by NGOs that intervened remotely without being in touch with the reality on the ground.

“It was impossible to conclusively establish that the rapes and abuses were carried out by military personnel as it was found that some male IDPs and even camp officials were able to claim “military connection” to commit such acts.

Some of the approaches to reporting the incidents in the camps, like a recent one by the New York Times, weaponizes rape allegations into something that unscrupulous people can use to blackmail or indict anyone they have issues with.

“The New York Times publication amounts to a calculated attempt to denigrate the patriotism and the efforts that Nigerian soldiers have put into the war against terror globally.

“The Nigerian military had deployed in the past to several places in and outside the country where they engaged in numerous social responsibility initiatives without being accused by any single perosn of rape.

“The patriotic actors in the fight against terror and the troops have been most embarrassed by the allegations that they were engaged in raping the Nigerians they are meant to be protecting especially with the kind of damaging piece by New York Times.

This notwithstanding, authorities need to order a fresh investigation that will do away with the bias that had been created by the way the allegations of rape were published with certain groups unilaterally indicting soldiers even before a proper probe has taken place.

“The mental, physical and emotional wellbeing of the survivors and indeed all IDPs in camps must be given higher priority to ensure that there is no repeat of what has been reported. Identifying, apprehending and punishing the real culprits would be a first step to realizing this since our research has cleared the military and its personnel.

“On the strength of our findings, we recommend an overhaul of the curfew system in IDPs camps to ensure that impersonators do not have the benefit of sneaking out of their own quarters to commit havoc while pretending to be soldiers or security operatives.”