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Reports reveal the dark side of Nigerian military rescues

Reports reveal the dark side of Nigerian military rescues


Reports reveal the dark side of Nigerian military rescues

An investigation of terrorism in one African country has produced what an advocate for a religiously diverse, inclusive, and prosperous Nigeria says are startling results.

Reuters, an international news organization, has spent several years talking to people on the ground in Nigeria, where tens of thousands of Christians have been killed through raids on churches and entire villages. Stephen Enada of the International Committee on Nigeria (ICON) says the military there has reclaimed some of the women and girls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen.

Enada, Stephen (ICON) Enada

"But when they rescue them, some of them are pregnant with children," he reports. "So what we just discovered from the testimony of some of these women and girls is that they have been violated, [and] abortions have been performed on them by the Nigerian military."

Enada says the concern is that the unborn babies would otherwise grow up to become terrorists.

"That is the explanation some people are getting from the military echelon in Nigeria -- that the tendency of them joining Boko Haram is high, so they have to kill them," the ICON president relays.

According to Reuters, if a woman or girl captured by Boko Haram already has children, the Nigerian forces kill those rescued children for the same reason. But when challenged about that, the Nigerian government either denies it or looks away. In Enada's opinion, that should generate international outrage.