Amnesty International released an explosive and frightening, but apparently exaggerated report on Thursday, detailing how “thousands of women” who had survived Boko Haram atrocities in Nigeria’s northeast ended up being abused and sometimes violently raped by the same soldiers who had come to rescue them. “It is absolutely shocking that people who had already suffered so much under Boko Haram have been condemned to further horrendous abuse by the Nigerian military,” said Osai Ojigho, Director of Amnesty International Nigeria. Amnesty did not provide evidence to back up claims that “thousands of women and girls who survived the brutal rule of the Boko Haram armed group have since been further abused by the Nigerian security forces”. Or that some abuses “appeared” to be part of a pattern of persecution of anyone perceived to have a connection to Boko Haram. But the organization said women reported being beaten and called “Boko Haram wives” by the security officials when they complained about their treatment.

Source: The North Africa Journal May 25, 2018 05:37 UTC