The Nigerian National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) set up an independent panel to look into claims that the Nigerian military forced Boko Haram militants to have abortions on women who were pregnant. The group found no evidence of this to be true. A story from Reuters said that between 2013 and 2021, the military had forced about 10,000 abortions on women connected to Boko Haram. This led to the creation of the panel. According to the report, these acts by the Nigerian military were part of a secret plan to keep children born to insurgents from becoming a threat to national security.
Former Supreme Court Justice Abdu Aboki led the investigation, which took place in Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), among other states. From the start, the Nigerian military, led by General Lucky Irabor, who was Chief of Defense Staff at the time, strongly rejected the claims. The military said that the Reuters story was not true and that it was an attempt to hurt their reputation. They said the news agency’s story was not reliable and called it a “mining of lies.”
When asked about the charges, General Irabor said they were “shocking” and “spurious.” He also told Reuters that they should show any military officers who could back up the claims. The General also offered immunity to any military member who might be ready to testify. This showed how open the military is about how it runs its operations. Irabor made it clear that the military operated according to strict rules and that there had been no orders, written or spoken, that could have allowed such acts to happen. He also said that the military always did its job professionally and in a disciplined way, and that they had never gone after children born to insurgents or their moms.
The NHRC panel carefully looked over the proof and came to the conclusion that the accusations were false. The panel did not find any evidence to support the claim that the military was pushed to have a lot of abortions. It said that the military helped with the investigation and praised General Irabor’s openness. What the military said about their actions and how they followed international humanitarian law were very important to the panel’s decision. The panel also didn’t find any proof of a secret plan to target the mothers and children of Boko Haram fighters, as the Reuters story said there was.
This finding from the NHRC panel is a big support for the military’s point of view. But the controversy over the first accusations continues to make people wonder how hard it is to cover military activities in conflict zones, especially ones where there are insurgencies like Boko Haram. The panel’s report clears the military of any wrongdoing, but the charges show how difficult and unclear it can be to balance security, human rights, and media coverage in areas where there is conflict.
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