Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, in North-eastern Nigeria have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to investigate allegations of sexual abuse at IDP camps.
The IDPs, who spoke in a statement issued on Monday by Hamsatu Allamin, a rights activist and a leader of a movement of women IDPs in the region, disclosed that they were forced to deny the rape reports against men of the Nigerian Army published by Amnesty International.
The movement, through its Twitter handle, said: “The military came to Dalori with journalists to ask us displaced women if we were raped. Before the visit, the women were told to say everything is fine, that there are no issues. Is this the way our complaints are handled?
“One of our members was there. She has an 18-month-old son, fathered by a soldier. Too scared and intimidated to speak, she said nothing. No one spoke. Why are we forced to be exposed in such a way?
“It happened to us. It is real. And we formed our group to allow women to get accountability. We have said it before. We are ready to speak but we cannot imagine this,” the statement noted.
The movement, therefore, called on Mr Buhari to hear their cry and investigate “the soldiers who raped us when we were in Bama..
“Our children died because there was not enough food, unless we had sex with soldiers. We have said it before: we are ready to speak to any investigation team the president sends to us.
“We only ask it will not be led by soldiers as they are also the ones who abused our women.”
