Human right watch once documented sexual abuse including rape and exploitation of 43 women and girls living in internally displaced person's [IDP] camp in Maiduguri, Borno state capital.
Mausi Segun, senior Nigeria Researcher at Human Right Watch said it's disgraceful and outrageous that people who should protect these women and girls are attacking and abusing them.
Four internally displaced persons reported they were dragged and raped, while 37 were coerced into sex through false marriage promises, and maternal assistance. Many of those coerced into sex said they were abandoned if they became pregnant. They as well as their children eventually suffer discrimination, abuse and stigmatization from other camp residents.
Internally Displaced Persons living in the camp get irregular supply of food, clothing, medicine and other essentials, as well as restricted movement in the camps in Maiduguri which compounds the vulnerability of women and girls living in the camp. Widowed women and unaccompanied orphaned girls are vulnerable to rape and sexual exploitation by camp officials, soldiers, police, members of the civilian vigilante groups and other Maiduguri residents.
A woman in Dalori camp said residents gets meal only once a day. She said she accepted advances of a soldier who proposed marriage because she needed help in feeding her four children. He disappeared five months later when she told him she was pregnant.Aid workers in the camp had warned since early 2016 that displaced women and girls in the camp have been forced to exchange sex for basic necessities.
A 16 year old girl was raped by a vigilante group member in charge of distributing aid in the camp. She said, he knew my parents were dead because he is also from Baga. He would bring me food items, so i believed he really wanted to marry me, but he was also asking me for sex. I always told him i was too young. The day he raped me, he offered me a drink in a cup, as soon as i drank it, i slept off. It was in his camp room.
I knew something was wrong when i woke up, i was in pain, and blood was coming out of my private part. I felt weak and could not walk well. I did not tell anyone because i was afraid. When my menstrual period did not come, i knew i was pregnant and just wanted to die, to join my dead mother. I was too ashamed to even go the clinic for pregnancy care, i am so young. The man ran away from the camp when he heard i delivered a baby six months ago. I just feel so sorry for the baby because i have no food or love to give to him. I think he might die.
An 18 year old was raped in exchange for freedom to leave the camp. A 30 year old woman from Walassa, was promised false marriage by a soldier and was abandoned with a pregnancy and four children. Many other women in the camp suffer sexual abuse, exploitation and violence. The rights of displaced women and girls should be reinforced. let's fight human right abuses. Stop violence against women.
Mausi Segun, senior Nigeria Researcher at Human Right Watch said it's disgraceful and outrageous that people who should protect these women and girls are attacking and abusing them.
Four internally displaced persons reported they were dragged and raped, while 37 were coerced into sex through false marriage promises, and maternal assistance. Many of those coerced into sex said they were abandoned if they became pregnant. They as well as their children eventually suffer discrimination, abuse and stigmatization from other camp residents.
Internally Displaced Persons living in the camp get irregular supply of food, clothing, medicine and other essentials, as well as restricted movement in the camps in Maiduguri which compounds the vulnerability of women and girls living in the camp. Widowed women and unaccompanied orphaned girls are vulnerable to rape and sexual exploitation by camp officials, soldiers, police, members of the civilian vigilante groups and other Maiduguri residents.
A woman in Dalori camp said residents gets meal only once a day. She said she accepted advances of a soldier who proposed marriage because she needed help in feeding her four children. He disappeared five months later when she told him she was pregnant.Aid workers in the camp had warned since early 2016 that displaced women and girls in the camp have been forced to exchange sex for basic necessities.
A 16 year old girl was raped by a vigilante group member in charge of distributing aid in the camp. She said, he knew my parents were dead because he is also from Baga. He would bring me food items, so i believed he really wanted to marry me, but he was also asking me for sex. I always told him i was too young. The day he raped me, he offered me a drink in a cup, as soon as i drank it, i slept off. It was in his camp room.
I knew something was wrong when i woke up, i was in pain, and blood was coming out of my private part. I felt weak and could not walk well. I did not tell anyone because i was afraid. When my menstrual period did not come, i knew i was pregnant and just wanted to die, to join my dead mother. I was too ashamed to even go the clinic for pregnancy care, i am so young. The man ran away from the camp when he heard i delivered a baby six months ago. I just feel so sorry for the baby because i have no food or love to give to him. I think he might die.
An 18 year old was raped in exchange for freedom to leave the camp. A 30 year old woman from Walassa, was promised false marriage by a soldier and was abandoned with a pregnancy and four children. Many other women in the camp suffer sexual abuse, exploitation and violence. The rights of displaced women and girls should be reinforced. let's fight human right abuses. Stop violence against women.
