It’s hardly news that security operatives in charge of camps have been carrying out several alleged acts of sexual abuse on young girls and women they’ve been sworn to protect.
According to a recent report by the New York Times (NYT), it’s a practice that continues with even more stories of woes told by helpless victims who are mostly widows and unaccompanied orphans.
Also, in a report published by Amnesty International last year, the organisation said investigations showed how women, young girls and children were “raped and starved to death” by soldiers in various internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps.
The report said women were separated from their husbands and confined in “satellite camps” where they have been sexually exploited, sometimes in exchange for food.
However, a non-governmental organisation, Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA) has called for investigations and prosecution of all government officials accused of committing sexual abuses against women in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in the northeast.
The group claims that the female victims in the IDPs camps are being forced to sleep with men by the camp attendants, soldiers inclusive, mostly in exchange for food.
The Senior Program Coordinator of the group, Mrs Anisah Ari, made this call on Friday at a meeting with survivors of sexual abuses in Abuja.
Anisah in her statement said, “Those who have been sent out to protect these women and girls in the IDP camps are actually the perpetrators of sexual and gender-based violence, engaging these women in survival sex, where they give sex in demand for food”
To curb this menace, in the year 2015 the Federal Government enacted Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act.
Even with the enactment, it is the belief of the Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA) that the rate of sexual abuses in the camps of the IDPs in the Northeast is on the increase.
Anisah maintained that if actions are not taken to put a check on sexual abuses in IDPs camps, it may likely lead to health complications for many of the victims which resulting effect may be the conviction of the victims into isolation as a result of shame and disgrace.
ATUNDE Ahmed Olarewaju is a reporter with THE INFORMANT247. He covers bar, court and crimes news
