IDPs And Rights Abuses

The Human Rights Watch (HRW), in
a report released recently, revealed
how women and girls displaced by the activities of Boko Haram in the North-East accused government officials, including soldiers and policemen, of sexual exploitation and denial of basic human rights in the various Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps.
Many of the female IDPs are reportedly being raped by security operatives and camp officials who were ordinarily posted to these camps to protect these citizens who fled their homes to avert being killed, maimed or abducted by the terrorists.
The HRW report disclosed that some 43 women and girls living in seven IDP camps in Maiduguri, the Bornu State capital, had passed through terrible ordeal of sexual exploitation. The victims had been displaced from several Bornu towns and villages including Abadam, Bama, Baga, Damasle, Dikwa, Gwoza, Kukawa, Walassa, and Gamboru Ngaba.
Most of the women and girls, the report states, were drugged and raped, while others were lured into sex through false promises of marriage, financial assistance and other benefits. Worse still, many of those coerced into sex, the report further stated, disclosed how they were abandoned once they became pregnant, and how their children have suffered discrimination, abuse, and stigmatization from other camp residents.
It is indeed a painful irony that the rights of the IDPs are being abused by agents of the very government saddled with the responsibility of protecting them from abuses.
The actions of the randy officials who, obviously, cannot check their libido, are to say the least condemnable, unacceptable and barbaric, as they are capable of tarnishing Nigeria’s image among the comity of nations.
This sad state of affairs in the IDP camps places a moral burden on the Federal Government to rise to the occasion by doing everything possible to identify the predators and that way, protect the IDPs who had suffered enough deprivations, victimization, molestation and abuses by the Boko Haram insurgents.
It is however, heart-warming that President Muhammadu Buhari, incensed by the revelations in the HRW report, had ordered the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr. Idris Ibrahim, to move on swiftly with state governors of the affected states to immediately commence investigations into the issue.
Apparently aware of the fact that the ugly incident could discourage international agencies and donors from providing relief and other humanitarian services and materials to the IDPs, Buhari had assured that the allegations raised in the HRW report are not being taken lightly as findings of the investigation team would determine the next course of action and appropriate response.
As assuring as the Federal Government’s move on the matter is, The Tide insists that its findings, like others before now, should not end up in the waste bin, just as the culprits must be brought to justice to deter others with similar incontrollable libido.
We suggest that the probe should dig deeply into the report that in July, 2016 alone, 66 per cent of 400 IDPs in the three affected states were sexually harassed by those unscrupulous officials.
Also, The Tide wants the Federal Government to ensure that IDPs are adequately protected and catered for by using the best security hands for their protection and also providing their basic needs, while also checking persistent diversion of foodstuffs meant for them.
The International Federation of Women lawyers (FIDA) and other stakeholders should also be involved in the crusade for the well being of the IDPs. In that way, their anguish would have been ameliorated and their lives turned around ort he better.