AS the world marks the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, The ICIR examines the issue from the perspectives of some survivors.
Niri sat on a low wooden stool outside her modest mud brick house, her hands resting idly in her lap.
“They raped me after all they did” she forced the words out.”
Niri said she had just managed to calm her young twins, who had been crying unusually around 10 p.m. that night in 2012, when her village in Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau State was suddenly plunged into chaos.
“My husband hid in the ceiling immediately, while my two sons tried to escape but they were shot dead the moment they opened the door,” Niri recounted, letting out a long, sorrowful sigh.
At that moment, Niri said she lay flat on the ground, pressing her twins tightly against both sides of her waist to keep them silent.
“The room was dark and silent when the strange men speaking Fulfulde entered but I couldn’t hold back my tears,” she said, adding that it was tears of fear and the unbearable pain of watching her two sons die.
Unfortunately, just seconds into the silence, a sudden noise came from the ceiling. The men opened fire, and she said she was drenched in the blood that poured down from above.
Niri case reflects the cases of at least 32 women who have experienced sexual violence in conflict situation across Riyom, Barakin Ladi and Bokkos LGAs according to a local data curated from community leaders in 2024.
Her experience represents countless cases of rape amid the ongoing conflict that go unreported in official spaces, suggesting the actual number may be significantly alarming.
Amnesty International reports numerous incidents where women who were raped during attacks, often face stigma and a lack of access to healthcare and justice thereafter.
Horror of conflict in Nigerian States
Persistent violent conflicts in some states in Nigeria have not only displaced tens of thousands of people from their homes in recent years but left a trail of traumatic experiences.
Christened “‘Home of Peace and Tourism’, Plateau State turned into a scene of mass killing and destruction in 2001 after a political disagreement that led to the killing of at least 1,000 people, leaving approximately 220,000 displaced persons in less than one week.
By 2004, the death toll had risen to over 5,000 people. In November 2008, approximately 700 people died.
Another gruesome incident occurred in 2010 when over 800 people died; including 150 children and 80 women who were murdered in Dogo-Nahawa, 10 kilometres south of Jos, the capital city.
The attacks reached a horrifying new level on Christmas Eve in 2023, when Bokkos, Barakin Ladi, and Mangu were plunged into tragedy, with over 2,000 residents, predominantly women and children, killed. More than 18,000 people were also displaced.
In early January 2018, Benue State, Nigeria, held a mass burial for over 70 people killed in an intensified conflict centred around land disputes and grazing rights.
The ICIR reports that killings in the state have spanned several years, and more than 200 residents have reportedly died in the onslaughts since the beginning of this month.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said it provided survivors with medical and psychological care after receiving reports of alarming levels of sexual violence against women and girls in Internally Displaced camps.
Similarly, 2021, Amnesty International research revealed that Boko Haram fighters targeted women and girls with rape and other sexual violence, amounting to war crimes, during raids in northeast Nigeria that year.
Survivors and witnesses reported that Boko Haram fighters carried out sexual violence during attacks on at least five villages in Magumeri Local Government Area of Borno State. The assaults, often occurring during nighttime raids, involved the rape of women and girls who were found in their homes or attempting to escape.
A traditional healer reportedly said she treated several women who had been raped in the aftermath of the attack.
The healer said she had previously treated two survivors, including one who was under 18 years old, after a Boko Haram attack on another village.
“I could see the pain on their faces. The first survivor told me what happened. I saw her private parts. They were very swollen. So I understood it was more than one or two people who had raped her. She was suffering,” the traditional healer said.
Call for action
According to the Amnesty International, the conflict in northeast Nigeria has created a humanitarian crisis, with more than 2,000,000 people now displaced. Boko Haram has also frequently targeted aid workers trying to respond to the crisis.
The organisation said that the Nigerian authorities have not taken any genuine steps towards investigating and prosecuting crimes by Boko Haram or the Nigerian security forces, including crimes of sexual violence.
However, in December 2020, the chief prosecutor of the ICC announced that her office had concluded a decade-long preliminary examination into the situation in Nigeria after a series of war crimes documented by Amnesty International, saying that it had found sufficient evidence of crimes to open a full investigation. No formal investigation has yet been opened.
The Director of Amnesty International Nigeria, Osai Ojigho, called on the International Criminal Court to immediately launch a full investigation into the atrocities, emphasising that this form of violence constitutes a war crime.
“As Boko Haram continue their relentless cycle of killings, abductions and looting, they are also subjecting women and girls to rape and other sexual violence during their attacks.
“The International Criminal Court must immediately open a full investigation into the atrocities committed by all sides, and ensure those responsible are held accountable, including for crimes against women and girls.” Ojigho said.
For survivors like Niri, her attackers did not only leave her with a lasting physical scar that still causes her to limp to this day, but a deep and painful traumatic scar.
“They shot me in the leg before leaving, but they didn’t harm my twins,” she said.
Niri said one of the twins died a few years after the attack.
“I was only 26 years old, left with only one of my surviving twins and a deep, painful trauma. I still have nightmares.”
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues.