Abducted female captives raped by Boko Haram members

by Ranti Joseph

According to an in-depth New York Times expose, numerous women and child have been molested and raped by members of the insurgent group, Boko Haram.  An act that officials and relief workers describe as a deliberate strategy to dominate rural residents and possibly even create a new generation of Islamist militants in Nigeria.

In interviews, the women recount their experiences of how they were locked in houses by the dozen, at the beck and call of fighters who forced them to have sex, sometimes with the specific goal of impregnating them.

One of the victims named Hamsatu said that they married her.

The 25 year old Hamsatu said she was four months pregnant, that the father was a Boko Haram member and that she had been forced to have sex with other militants who took control of her town.

“They chose the ones they wanted to marry. If anybody shouts, they said they would shoot them,” she recounted.

According to relief officials over 200 have so far been found to be pregnant, but relief officials believe many more are bearing the unwanted children of Boko Haram militants.

 The humiliation of what the refugees have been through led many of the women interviewed at the camp to deny being abused by the militants. But relief workers here said that when they arrived, many acknowledged that they had been raped.

Another victim, Hamsat a 16-year-old high school student from Bama disclosed that Boko Haram did not touch her. No, she said, Boko Haram had not touched her. “They were having affairs with them. Others were very stubborn. I used to pray,” she said.

Relief officials said that when they arrived two weeks ago, Hamsat was among those who acknowledged having been raped.

 Inside the house, “If they want to have an affair with a woman, they will just take her to a private place, so that the others won’t see,” said Yana in a singsong voice. She could not recall her age; a relief worker at the camp here said she had been raped so often by Boko Haram that she was “psychologically affected.”

Boko Haram has caused a lot of damage in the northeast, but they have truly done the unforgivable.

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