How Boko Haram Exploits, Rapes Abducted Girls – Report

Human Rights group, Amnesty International, on Tuesday said no fewer than 2,000 women and girls have been abducted by Islamist group Boko Haram in the past 15 months.
The group, which said this is in a report based on almost 200 witness accounts, added that many of victims were being trained to fight.
“Young women and girls are abducted, imprisoned and in some cases raped, forcibly married and made to participate in armed attacks, sometimes on their own towns and villages,’’ the group said.
A 19 year-old girl, Aisha, told Amnesty how she was abducted during a wedding in September along with her sister, the bride and the bride’s sister.
Boko Haram took them to a camp in the town of Gulak in Adamawa where the bride and the bride’s sister were forced to marry insurgents.
She said herself and no fewer than 100 other women and girls were taught how to fight and kill.
“I was among the girls trained to shoot. I was also trained on how to use bombs and how to attack a village.
“Then they started sending some of us to operations. I went on one operation to my own village.
She said during three months of captivity she was raped, sometimes by groups of up to six fighters.
Aisha said she also saw Boko Haram members killing no fewer than 50 people, including her sister.
Amnesty documented war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Boko Haram, including the killing of over 5,500 civilians in north-east Nigeria in the past 15 months.
Boko Haram has killed an estimated 14,000 people since 2009.
It said the group would take the women and girls they abducted directly to camps or move them to houses in towns and villages.
They would later indoctrinate them with their version of Islam in preparation for marriage.
Men and boys are regularly conscripted or executed.
According to the report, Boko Haram attacked and raided over 300 towns and villages in the past 15 months.
The insurgents target the military or police, capture arms and ammunition which they then used against civilians.

They would shoot anyone trying to escape, rounding up and executing men of fighting age.
Alhaji, 18, told Amnesty he had been captured and was waiting to be killed after Boko Haram took over the town of Madagali on December 14.
“They killed 27 people in front of me.
“I was counting every one of them because I wanted to know when my turn would come,’’ Alhaji said, adding that over 100 men who refused to join the terrorists were executed that day.
A 15-year-old boy, spared due to his disability, said he witnessed ten stoning.
“They stone them to death on Fridays. They will gather all the children and ask them to stone.
“I participated in the stoning; they will dig a hole, bury all the body and stone the head. When the person dies, they will leave the stones until the body decays,’’ he said. (dpa/NAN)
Source: PremiumTimes