Weep More Child - Thisday

A new report from Watchlist, an international human rights organisation, provides details of abuse being suffered by kids in the ravaged North-eastern part of Nigeria where Boko Haram militants continue to inflict pain on the residents, writes Hopewell Ukpebor

For Rosemary Yakubu, a teenager living in the North-east, life can never be the same. After being cruelly abused sexually by some individuals in the most vicious way possible, she struggled to pick up the shattered pieces of her life, one that smears of desolation, abandonment, hatred and shame.

Yakubu is not alone in her burden however, as hundreds of young boys and girls, due to the crisis in Nigeria’s North-east, have been made pawns in the truculent quest for peace and survival. As a result many have lost their lives, lost loved ones and are orphaned. Importantly however, many have also lost a purpose for living.

Forcibly recruited into the ranks of the warring parties, children (below the age of 18) are abducted, from their schools and homes, and intimidated into joining the ranks of the groups by threatening their families or providing monetary incentives. The teenagers are then used for spying and even coerced to participate in hostilities, which puts their lives in grave danger.

The group at the centre of this heinous perpetration of all forms of human rights abuses is Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad, commonly known as Boko Haram. A terrorist organisation whose ruthless campaign of violence knows no boundaries, as men, women and even toddlers have fallen prey to their nefarious blood-thirsty agenda.

Indeed, several reports by various humanitarian agencies have also fingered the Civilian Joint Task Force ( Civilian-JTF), a local militia, formed to corroborate the efforts of the Nigerian military forces who have been trying to put an end to the terror being continually unleashed by Boko Haram militants.

In the most recent special report put together by Watchlist, a non-profit child rights and humanitarian organisation, several cases of forced recruitment into the warring groups were documented, as well as reports on wanton destruction of school buildings, abduction of children, rape, and other forms of human rights violations.

The report authored by Ms. Janine Moma, the Research Officer for Watchlist which was conducted between March and May 2014, said: “Following the escalation of acts of violence and killings by JAS and other unknown gunmen in Borno and other North-eastern states, and the seeming deterioration of the security forces’ ability to protect civilians, vigilantism has become widespread in North-eastern Nigeria. Civilians have taken up arms against JAS, in defence of their lives and communities.

“In 2013, the Civilian JTF or “Yan Gora”, comprised of loosely organized vigilantes, was formed in Borno State’s capital of Maiduguri to assist Nigerian security forces with the identification and arrest of suspected JAS members. The name is used to demonstrate the association between the government-created JTF (formerly comprising the Nigerian army, police, and state security services) and civilians who have volunteered to fight against JAS. The group, along with other self-defence groups, began to defend areas where government security forces were either absent or unreliable. “These civilian self-defence militias vary in organization and governance, with some reporting to community leaders.

“The Civilian JTF has fought against JAS by manning checkpoints, identifying and helping to arrest members of JAS, providing information to security services and, at least on one occasion, participating in operations with security services. It has received military and state support in the form of training and material resources, as well as praise from the President.  Watchlist and other human rights groups have documented a number of abuses by the group, including the recruitment and use of children. Some fear they are inciting JAS to target civilians.’’

Sadly enough, the violence in the North-east has ensured that poverty and underdevelopment become a mainstay in that part of the country, thus providing an ideal ground for extremist to take root, as citizens have become refugees scampering from one location to the other in order to escape the bloodletting that has characterised the North-eastern towns and communities, and is even spreading beyond the country’s borders.

According to the report, “hundreds of thousands of Nigerians have been uprooted from their homes, as a result of the increasing violence, with many becoming refugees in neighbouring countries. Conflict in the northeast, along with inter-communal violence, has displaced roughly 650,000 people in the states of emergency and the neighbouring states of Gombe, Bauchi, and Taraba. About 3,128,000 children have been affected by conflict. Emergency responders, humanitarian agencies, and human rights defenders have expressed concerns about the affected population’s access to food, water, sanitation, and medical care.”

The report also pointed out that schools and other formal places of learning have been targeted which led to the partial or total destruction of such facilities, causing severe harm to the children and their teachers, as well as other school officials. These teachers have also received direct, credible threats for providing education to the children, a situation that does not rest well with JAS, which literally translates to ’forbidden western education’.  “JAS’ targeted attacks on schools have devastated education in the Northeast which already has some of the lowest rates of enrolment, with only 20.8 percent of school age children participating in primary schools in Borno in 2008.

The group has destroyed and ransacked school property, and carried out deliberate killings and abductions of hundreds of students and teachers. They have also created a climate of fear by threatening and intimidating teachers and students who continue to go to school.
The growing insecurity in the northeast has led to mass school closures, the flight of teachers, and the withdrawal of many students’’, the report said.

The report went further to detail some of the threats by Boko Haram stating “the JAS carries out well-planned, coordinated, routine attacks on primary and secondary schools in northern Nigeria. Between 2012 and 2014, the group burned down hundreds of school buildings, threatened and killed teachers, and abducted and killed students. JAS leader Abubakar Shekau has threatened teachers and students and warned against attendance in secular schools. In one speech he stated, “If (Nigerian security forces) are going to places of worship and destroying them, like mosques and Quranic schools, you have primary schools as well, you have secondary schools and universities and we will start bombing them … Touch us and see. That is what we will do’’.

A parents’ worst nightmare is for their child to go to school and not return, but even that has become usual practice in Nigeria’s North-east, as dozens of girls and boys are abducted from their schools. While the girls are captured to perform the role of house wives, do domestic chores and perform sexual services, while the boys are thrown into the thick of things.
And the rather innocent children are asking if it is a crime to be educated. They ask if it is wrong to pursue the bright future they dream of; the children ask if they cannot also become leaders in the socio-economic fabric of the society. They ask so many questions but have been given very few answers.

A 13 year old boy, in junior secondary school 2 from Federal Government College Buni Yadi, in Yobe State, whose name was not mentioned in the report, narrated how members of Boko Haram unleashed mayhem in his school.
He said:  “We were sleeping in the hostel. We heard the gun shots. I woke up from sleep … ten boys were in the room … I went out of the room … I was running … I was feeling afraid… I had gotten out of the room and I was shot at in the leg … The person pointed a gun at me… I fell down… I was hit with two bullets on my left foot … I pretend[ed] like I died… because if I didn’t pretend they would shoot me again … it felt like 30 minutes … When the people [were] not at the place I woke up. I woke up and entered the room again. The [other students] that didn’t die… I said if they are able to run, let us run.”

The 13-year-old boy then walked past several dead bodies with some of his classmates and exited the campus. He begged for someone who lived near the school to open the gate to their home. The residents of the house bound his leg and took him to the hospital the next morning. “I was there (at the hospital) for four hours… They put a bag of blood… my leg was very painful.” Many other students from the school were admitted into the hospital. Media reports suggest between 29 and 59 boys were killed during the attack, the report said.

Since the Nigerian Armed forces started carrying out strengthened offensives against the terrorist, many innocent civilians, like the proverbial grass that suffers when two elephants fight, have been caught in the ceasefire, while many public places like worship centres and towns along with schools have been turned to mere debris.

And now, the fear of being attacked has led to mass closure of schools. As the report puts it ‘’some schools in Borno and Yobe states were closed for fear of attacks. Others have been used by IDPs as shelters.  Watchlist spoke with 22 interviewees who stated that their communities proactively closed secular schools because they did not feel they could operate them safely.”

Asides the arbitrary destruction of schools, another downside to the terror in the northeast, has been the unrelenting abduction of children, who are forcibly recruited into the ranks of the terrorist, and are deployed in the battle front. The Christian girls apart from being raped and abused are forcefully converted to Islam, and are shipped out into marriage, and as illustrated by the large scale abduction of the Chibok girls, the rate of the abductions is enjoying a geometric rise.

The report recounts the story of a teenage girl who was abducted from her school in Gwoza, Borno state, soon after she arrived at school.  She explained “I found myself in an Imam’s house. I don’t really remember how I got there … The men said [to us], ‘You are the real strong Christians. We want you to become Muslims. We will give you men to marry and if you refuse, we will kill you.’ The five other girls accepted. I said, ‘rather kill me.’” Nonetheless, Boko Haram decided to prepare her and the other girls for marriage. Over a roughly one-month period, she cooked meals for the members and rehearsed prayers and verses with the girls. Just before her marriage, she seized an opportunity to escape when a core group of suspected members of JAS left the compound for an attack. The other girls have not been seen by the community since their abduction, the report added.

According to the report also, four of the former abductees interviewed by Watchlist said they were raped during their abduction. Similar reports have also been documented by the media and by human rights organisations. “The rape appears at times targeted and at other times opportunistic. A former abductee speaking to a local news organization explained that JAS leaders raped young virgins, while other members of the group took turns to raping married and elderly women.

“In two cases documented by Watchlist, members of JAS took advantage of an opportunity to rape the abductees when either the commanding officer was away or when the woman or girl was alone and vulnerable.”
A young woman who was 18 years old at the time of the abduction explained, “they gave us an axe to dig a hole to ease ourselves. In the night I wanted to ease myself. I was trying to ease myself and as I was in the process (he approached) and I started screaming. He abused me. He slipped away. He tried to penetrate, but when people came, he didn’t enter.”

Furthermore, the report stated that Nigerian security forces have seen children as young as 12 year old fighting alongside the group. ‘’Many children who are abducted during attacks carried out by JAS are forced to become members of the group. A former abductee explained to Watchlist that JAS told captured boys and men that they would be killed if they did not join the group. A 10-year-old boy who recently escaped from a JAS camp described his abduction, at age nine, to the international media. A child of poor farmers and living under the care of an Islamic teacher in Borno State, the boy was captured, drugged, and trafficked into the hands of JAS members.

Accounts from interviewees and civil society also suggest that women and girls abducted by JAS are used for cooking and sometimes also forced to participate in attacks. One former abductee explained to Watchlist that while she never participated in combat, she was told to carry live ammunition and raid hospitals for drugs during attacks. JAS also asked her to slaughter a man abducted by the group: “They killed four and asked me to slaughter the other. I refused.” In mid-2014, a number of incidents occurred where female members of JAS carried out attacks, although it is unclear whether these girls and women were abductees’’.

The report however suggested that instead of detaining the children caught in the ranks of the terrorist, the Nigerian security forces should arrange for them to be rehabilitated and re-introduced into the society.  According to Moma,  “Children as young as 13 are being recruited by both sides of the conflict and have nowhere to turn, the government of Nigeria should denounce the recruitment of children by all armed groups, take immediate steps to release child soldiers in its custody, and develop procedures to transfer child soldiers to civilian actors.

She further called for the relevant groups to take immediate action, in order to prevent the destruction of schools, while charging the federal government of Nigeria to make the appropriate policies that mandate baseline emergency planning and budgeting for schools, and support the participation of International humanitarian actors in the response to the conflict in the North. “Continuous attacks on schools have devastated education in the region, creating a climate of fear for students and teachers, and leading to school closures from as early as April 2013. Relevant actors must bolster school security through programs like the Safe Schools Initiative.

The humanitarian response to violations against children has been slow, fragmented, and unable to meet the fast-growing needs of those affected by the conflict, few international actors currently engage in the northeast, leaving the government and local groups, with limited capacity, to support survivors.
The Nigerian Government, United Nations, and non-governmental agencies must take urgent steps to recruit experts with experience operating in a conflict situation and scale up programming to support some of Nigeria’s most vulnerable and marginalized children,” she concluded.

Source: Thisday