Boko Haram Militants Target Nigerian Christians, Kill Scores In Adamawa State

Boko Haram militants struck earlier today in a predominantly Christian community of Sabon Gari on the border of Borno and Adamawa state.

Fleeing residents said the sect members arrived the village area and slaughtered several people as they were heading to church.

Nigerian troops in the area had fled some three days ago after Mubi, the second biggest in Adamawa state fell to the militants.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) had released a new report last week where the group gave a detailed narration how Boko Haram tortured, raped and forcibly converted abducted girls to Islam and also married them off to members of the sect.

The report, stated that witnesses described how abducted married women or those abducted with children were often released when they told Boko Haram they had converted to Islam.

The report titled, “Those Terrible Weeks in their Camp – Boko Haram Violence against Women and Girls in North-east Nigeria”, gave a graphic account of how the abducted girls were used to lure members of the Civilian Joint Task Force, also known as the youth vigilante, into ambush and captivity.

The report, based on field research, including interviews with victims and witnesses of abduction, documents the abduction of women and girls by Boko Haram, highlighting the harrowing experiences of some of the abducted women and girls.

“The victims, including 12 students of the Chibok school who escaped from Boko Haram custody after they were abducted, provided further details of the abuses they endured.

“The women and girls described how they were abducted from their homes and villages while working on the farms, fetching water, or attending school.

“The victims were held in eight different Boko Haram camps that they believed to be in the 518-square kilometre Sambisa Forest Reserve and around the Gwoza hills for periods ranging from two days to three months.”

According to HRW, some of the victims and analysts it interviewed said women and girls were also being used for tactical reasons, such as to lure security forces for ambushes, force payments of ransoms, or for prisoner exchange deals.

The report also described the ease with which Boko Haram insurgents operated in North-east Nigeria unhindered by security agencies.

Among others, HRW recommended that the Nigerian government enacts legislation to domesticate the International Criminal Court’s Rome Statute, which Nigeria ratified in 2001, including criminalising under Nigerian law genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, consistent with the International Criminal Court’s Rome Statute definitions.