A Nigerian human rights commission says it will investigate reports that the country’s military has run a secret abortion program that carried out tens of thousands of forced abortions on women suspected of having been impregnated by Boko Haram terrorists.
Officials from the United Nations, the Nigerian government and other partners met on Friday at the headquarters of the National Human Rights Commission in the capital city of Abuja and said they will investigate the report on mass abortions carried out by the military. VOA News reported.
The move by Nigerian officials follows a Reuters report earlier this month that the military had 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.
After speaking with victims, health care workers and the military, the report detailed that a clandestine abortion program had been launched because senior officials reportedly believed that babies born to insurgent parents were “destined” to ” one day take up arms against the Nigerian government. .”
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Chibok school girls released from Boko Haram captivity in Abuja, Nigeria, Sunday, May 7, 2017.
(AP Photo/ Olamikan Gbemiga)
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 members. Haram.
Four soldiers described for the publication how their superiors had told them that the abortions were necessary to “destroy insurgent fighters before they could be born.”
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A woman walks towards a house damaged by Boko Haram militants, along the Konduga-Bama road in Bama, Borno, Nigeria.
(Reuters/Afolabi Sotunde)
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.
“When allegations like these are made, we as a human rights commission always like to apply due process, and that means we will hear both sides of the story before jumping to conclusions,” Anthony Ojukwu, executive secretary. of the national human rights commission, he told VOA News on Friday. “We will ask the relevant agencies to investigate this, so that we can make the correct analysis of the situation.”
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Nigerian soldiers guard a checkpoint in Gwoza, Nigeria.
(AP images)
Boko Haram, a militant group seeking to impose a strict Islamic state on the region, has terrorized Christians across the country for years, carrying out executions and kidnappings, including kidnapping nearly 300 schoolchildren in 2014.
Fox News Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.
