SAN FRANCISCO, May 05, (THEWILL) –
Internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the north-east have claimed that they are being prevented from opening up on the alleged sexual abuse ongoing in their camps.
THEWILL recalls that Amnesty International (AI) recently released a report alleging that soldiers and members of civilian joint task force (JTF) demanded sex from IDPs in exchange of food.
The military subsequently led some journalists to various IDP camps and at the end, they said no case of sexual abuse was discovered.
However, the IDPs, in a statement issued under Knifar, a movement of women IDPs in the region led by Hajiya Hamsatu Allamin, a rights activist, have said they were asked to say “there were no issues” in the camp during the visit.
“The military came to Dalori with journalists to ask us displaced women if we were raped. Before the visit, the women were told to say everything is fine, that there are no issues. Is this the way our complaints are handled?” the statement published via the movement’s Twitter handle read.
“One of our members was there. She has an 18-month-old son, fathered by a soldier. Too scared and intimidated to speak, she said nothing. No one spoke. Why are we forced to be exposed in such a way?
“It happened to us. It is real. And we formed our group to allow women to get accountability. We have said it before. We are ready to speak but we can not imagine this is the way to do this.”
“Our children died because there was not enough food, unless we had sex with soldiers.
“We have said it before: we are ready to speak to any investigation team the president sends to us. We only ask it will not be led by soldiers as they are also the ones who abused our women.”
About the Author
