The Nigerian military has performed at least 10,000 secret and often forced abortions on women suspected of having been impregnated by Boko Haram militants since 2013 as the nation sought to crack down on the insurgent group, a Reuters investigation said on Wednesday.
After speaking with victims, health workers and the military, the report details that a clandestine abortion program was launched because senior officials reportedly believed that babies born to insurgent parents were “predestined” to “one day take the arms against the Nigerian government.
A civilian health worker described the program as “sanitizing society” as women, largely without their consent, were given pills and injections to force abortions after being kidnapped and often raped by Boko Haram members. .
Chibok schoolgirls released from Boko Haram captivity in Abuja, Nigeria, on May 7, 2017.
(AP Photo/ Olamikan Gbemiga)
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Four soldiers described for the publication how their superiors told them that the abortions were necessary to “destroy insurgent fighters before they could be born.”
The soldiers detailed how the women would be separated in the field after rescue operations or then taken in groups to military installations or civilian hospitals to undergo a compulsory abortion.
Some women who resisted the efforts of the military after learning about the abortion program were forced to endure the procedure by being beaten, whipped, tied up, held at gunpoint or drugged into submission, the investigation found.
A 24-year-old woman described being beaten and insulted while being given forced abortion drugs at a military installation in north-eastern Nigeria in 2018.
“One of the soldiers beat me, saying he is a ‘bastard child’ from ‘a Boko Haram pregnancy,'” he said during the investigation. “He hit me with a gun.”
Four health workers told Reuters reporters the plan was for the sake of women and unborn children who they said would face stigma for being associated with Boko Haram.
ARCHIVE – Boko Haram militants
(AP)
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Several women described being unaware of what was being done to them and told that they were being given medication to improve their health after living in captivity, in some cases for more than a year.
Several women said they realized what was happening after they began experiencing sharp pains in their abdomens accompanied by bleeding.
Some of the abortions proved fatal, including for a woman believed to be six to seven months pregnant when she received an injection.
“She was crying, screaming, rolling, and finally she stopped rolling and screaming. She became so weak and traumatized, and then she stopped breathing,” said a woman calling herself Ibrahim.
“They just dug a hole, covered it with sand and buried it,” he added.
Ibrahim’s account was reportedly corroborated by a colleague of his with whom Reuters also spoke.
Four soldiers and two security agents also told the publication that they had seen women die during the proceedings or that their bodies were later discovered.
FILE – Nigerian soldiers man a checkpoint in Gwoza, Nigeria, a city liberated from Boko Haram, April 8, 2015.
(The Associated Press)
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The investigation could not confirm how many women have died under the program since 2013 or who was behind the clandestine scheme.
Nigerian military officials denied the existence of the program when questioned by Reuters, though the publication said it reviewed hospital records, military lists detailing abortion procedures and spoke to numerous eyewitnesses.
The report noted that Reuters believes the estimated 10,000 abortions since 2013 is an undercount, based on documents it obtained and eyewitness conversations.
Boko Haram has existed in various forms in northeast Nigeria since the late 1990s.
Fighting between the government and the insurgent group intensified about a decade later when the group began to attack Christians and civilians more aggressively.
FILE – These girls escaped from Boko Haram.
(AP)
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In 2014, Boko Haram drew international attention after the kidnapping of 276 schoolchildren from the northeastern city of Chibok.
The whereabouts of dozens of kidnapped victims remain unknown and several mass kidnappings have occurred since then.
