Sequel to series and perpetual reports of sexual abuse at IDP camps in Borno state, investigation is underway to ascertain the complicity of some security personnel and others in those camps. SADIQ ABUBAKAR reports.
Borno State Emergency Management Agency in collaboration with the United Nations Humanitarian Coordination Office constituted a high-powered committee on resettlement of IDPs which was inuagurated by Governor Babagama Zulum recently. It has the deputy governor, Alhaji Umar Usman Kadaffur, as chairman with the mandate of resettling IDP returnees to their various communities in order to continue with their normal livelihood since the military liberated some communities.
Governor Zulum, during the inauguration, called on unrepentant members of the Boko Haram sect to lay down their arms as his government, he said, was doing everything possible to return all Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) back to their ancestral homes. He added that the insurgents should passionately know that the IDPs who have returned or are willing to return to their communities are directly or indirectly their parents or relations, saying that they are willing to pick up the pieces of their lives and continue their normal life.
Zulum, who stated this in Ajiri village of Mafa local government area while addressing hundreds of the newly-returned IDPs, recalled that in the last three weeks, government had resettled thousands of IDPs in the newly-constructed 500 housing estate in Ajiri village. He noted that his government would do everything possible to ensure all the returnees live a comfortable life in their respective communities. The committee had commenced reconstruction, rehabiliation and resettlement of the ravaged communities for the over two million IDPs taking refuge within and outside the state that were displaced by the insurgents all with the aim of curtailing future reoccurrence and also to decongest the state capital, Maiduguri.
The sexual assaultThe IDPs who have been taking refuge in various camps in Maiduguri city and other liberated communities in the North-east and parts of the country especially female IDPs have complained severally of sexual abuse and other sexual violence. Parents and NGOs also lamented the level of prostitution and sexual harassment at the camps by security personnel and male IDPs leading to unwanted pregnancies and abortion in some cases.Blueprint investigation shows that six of the 11 designated camps in Maiduguri which are being managed by SEMA had cases of rampant rape and prostitution that compelled the state government in the past to constitute a committee to investigate the allegation. This corroborates some IDP parents/ guardian’s position including NGOs, a development that forced some of the IDPs to relocate to their host communities while others evacuated their wives and daughters out of the camps.
An IDP’s experienceOne of the IDPs from Gwoza LGA at Bakassi IDP Camp located along Biu-Damboa road, Buba Mamman, aged 58 years said he had no option than to relocate his family out of the Bakassi IDP Camp due to the alleged activities of rapists.
Mamman said he had relocated three of his grown up daughters and wife from the camp to his relations house at Gwozari area of London Ciki ward in Maiduguri metropolis in order to save them from being raped.
He disclosed that one night due to lack of power in the camp, some men once attacked and vandalised the tent where his daughters stayed; fortunately, they could not have their way. He alleged that some unidentified men in the camp even entice widows, divorcees and ladies with money due to the hardships and sufferings the IDPs face in terms of survival and lack of food ranging from N100-N200 or at times even more than that as token for their sexual desires.
He narrated that these unknown men force themselves on the women who decline their enticement or fail to cooperate with them all mostly in the night.He said, “I have been at the camp for over four years now when the Boko Haram insurgents invaded our village behind Gwoza hills where the insurgents abducted many women and youths including children. My second wife who is the mother of four out of the seven children that I have luckily escaped.
“I am worried because three of my daughters I am talking about are widows because the insurgents killed their husbands for refusing to be conscripted when the insurgents assembled all the youths in the village and preached to them.
“Yes, the issue of rape at the camp has reached an alarming rate that someone can hear the weeping voice of a woman being raped each night. Even one of my three daughters who is now a widow was once attacked by rapists where she sustained injuries but they were not successful. With that incident, I became confused and had no alternative for their safety than to move them out of the camp,” Mamman said.
He expressed his dismay over how married women and girls suffer in the hands of rapists in other camps like Gubio Road UDPs Camp, Pompomari Teachers Vilage IDOs Camp and Dalori I and II IDPs Camp without any form of protection from the authorities.
Another IDP shares experienceOne of the female IDPs at the Bakassi Camp from Ngoshe town also of Gwoza LGA, Hauwa Mohammed, told Blueprint that, “It is true that many women have been raped in some IDP camps in Maiduguri much recently because the rapists do force themselves to have canal knowledge of women who refuse to succumb to their enticement or collect their money.
“Many women experience all kinds of sexual harassment and attacks in the camps. Some have become helpless while others kept such shameful act to their chest but a few reported their cases to security authorities in the camps.
“This is to the extent that some were injured and treated while others got pregnant without husbands in the camp. Some even aborted out of shame especially those living with their parents in the camp.
“I know of some women that left the camp to the host community to stay with their relations for fear of being raped coupled with the sufferings we are exposed to at the camp without work or job, doing nothing and idle in hunger until food is distributed to us by NEMA or SEMA or NGOs.
“This situation that we find ourselves in the camp led to the issue of alleged prostitution and rape cases you are talking about. When a woman in need of food will collect money from men to eat and survive before she gets food from governement because she is not doing any business or work, you can imagine the outcome”, Hauwa said.
We are on top of situation – SEMA/NEMA
However, both NEMA and SEMA said they have taken steps to investigate and address the allegations of sexual abuse and harassment at the IDPs camps with a view to bringing to book those who are involved, no matter highly placed they are in government or security circles. They said that they are working assidously in collaboration with the state Ministry of Women Affairs and Federation of Women Lawyers, (FIDA) to protect and guarantee the rights of the female IDPs and children in the camps.Similarly, the agencies had called on the IDPs to report cases of sexual abuse and violence to SEMA or NEMA officials stationed at every IDP camp while the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs in collaboration with the Office of the First Lady had commenced profiling of women and children in Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in Borno for support.Leader of the delegation from the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, Mr Femi Alaka, made this known recently during a meeting with officials of Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA).Alaka said the delegation would give attention to displaced persons in camps along with border areas for support in order to address their sufferings, adding that the issue of gender-based violence would also be looked into.
According to him, they are going to work with SEMA, the state Ministry of Women Affairs to ensure the success of the exercise, pointing out that the team which was unable to visit some designated IDP camps in Maiduguri during the visit due to security reason held meeting with the IDP camp managers with a view to gathering useful information in their respective IDP camps.
The state chairperson of SEMA, Hajiya Yabawa Kolo, appreciated the intervention by the ministry and the first lady’s office. She assured the team of the state government’s commitment to supporting such intervention which is trageted at cushioning the lingering hardships and sufferings of IDPs most especially the female IDPs and children.
