3 days Ago By Our Reporters
Deborah Musa The National Human Rights Commission has absolved the Nigerian military of complicity in the reported termination of about 10,000 pregnancies in the North-East. Recall that Reuters had in a report published December 7, 2022, alleged that since 2013, the Nigerian military conducted a secret, systematic and illegal abortion programme in the North-East, ending at least 10,000 pregnancies among women and girls, many of whom had been kidnapped and raped by Islamist militants. In the report with “The Abortion Assault” headline and “Nigerian Military Ran Secret Mass Abortion Programme in War Against Boko Haram” as a rider, Reuters stated that the publication borders on an investigation-based interview with 33 women and girls who claimed the abortions were mostly carried out without their consent and prior knowledge while in the custody of the Nigerian Army.
The report further alleged that resisters were beaten, held at gunpoint or drugged into compliance. The victims women and girls, ranged from a few weeks to eight months pregnant, and some as young as 12 years old. Following the Reuters publication, the NHRC set up a panel, The Special Independent Investigative Panel on Human Rights Violations in Counter-Insurgency operations in North-East, chaired by a retired Supreme Court Justice, Justice Abdul Aboki.
The commission while addressing the media on Friday in Abuja, noted that based on investigations, the Nigerian military did not operate a secret programme or any policy of illegal abortions according to the testimonies from their witnesses. The NHRC said abortions are illegal in Nigerian hospitals with the exception of medical procedures that hospitals engage in which are called Manual Vacuum Aspirations known as medical abortion procedures. According to the commission, data obtained for the Manual vacuum aspirations across various hospitals in three different states in the Northeast from 2013 to 2023, was found to be 5,945.
The Senior Adviser to the Executive Secretary of the NHRC, Hillary Ogbonna, said there is no evidence of illegal abortion programmes terminating 10,000 pregnancies by the Nigerian military in the North-East”. Ogbonna said whistleblowers testified that a nongovernmental organisation, Medecins Sans Frontieres, was involved in a program of abortion in the North-East. He said MSF refused to appear before the panel.
“There is evidence that MSF may have operated a program of illegal abortion in the North-East. “The panel makes this finding on the basis of the testimony of a protected witness and whistleblower, who testified that abortions were conducted by MSF from 2014 to 2015 and continued after the replacement of one Mitchell, a Mexican woman, the head of the psychosocial support program in 2016 introduced to the Ministry of Women Affairs and Ministry of Health, Borno State”. However, Ogbonna clarified that other NGOs did not operate abortions in the North-East.
However, Ogbonna said, “the panel found the military culpable of infanticide, and the killing of community members in a village of Abisare, in New Mountain local government area of Borno state on the 16th of June 2016”. Copyright PUNCH All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.
Contact: [email protected] Tags #Illegal Abortion abortion gender based violence in North East military North-East.
