Nigeria: Shapes of Violence, 2

AfricaFocus Bulletin
April 27, 2016 (160427)
(Reposted from sources cited below)

Editor’s Note

“It has been two years since the world’s deadliest terrorist
organization – Boko Haram – abducted 271 girls from their high
school in the town of Chibok – a tragedy that would shine much
needed international attention on conflict in northeastern Nigeria.
Sadly, the Chibok girls are only one part of a much larger story of
violence against women and girls in the northeast. … the needs of
all those whom the Chibok girls symbolize – thousands upon thousands
who have suffered gender-based violence at Boko Haram’s hands – are
being unaddressed.” – Refugees International

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This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains excerpts from a new report by
Refugees International, documenting the failures of humanitarian
assistance to address gender-based violence in northeastern Nigeria,
both by Boko Haram and among those who have been displaced by the
violence. Also included is an Amnesty International report on an
entirely separate case of violence, in which Nigerian security
forces in December last year perpetrated “mass slaughter of hundreds
of men, women and children …and the attempted cover-up of this
crime,” against followers of a Shiite Muslim group in Zaria in
north-central Nigeria.

As these examples show, the realities of violence, whether in
Nigeria, other African countries, or indeed in rich countries such
as the United States as well, are often far more complicated than
the stereotypes that often prevail among those observing them from a
distance. Thus, violence in Nigeria is often simplistically
characterized as “religious conflict” between Muslims and
Christians. A new collection of empirical studies released this year
by Nigeria Watch, based in Ibadan, Nigeria, provides a more complex
perspective, documenting, for instance, that intra-Muslim conflict
is more common that conflicts between Muslims and Christians, and
that much of the conflict involving both Muslims and Christians is
based on secular rather than religious motives.

Another AfricaFocus Bulletin, available on the web but not sent out
by email, contains excerpts from one of the chapters in this new
report, focused specifically on violence involving Christians and
Muslims in Nigeria. The full 216-page report is available at
https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/37759

Other recent articles with relevant background on Boko Haram in
particular include the following from the Washington Post and the
New York Times.

“Here’s why so many people join Boko Haram, despite its notorious
violence,” by Hilary Matfess, Washington Post, April 26, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/hqw6og4

“Failure to Share Data Hampers War on Boko Haram in Africa,” by Eric
Schmitt and Dionne Searcey, New York Times, April 23, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/jzsmla7

“Women Who Fled Boko Haram Tell of Devastation and, Rarely, Hope,”
by Helene Cooper, New York Times, April 22, 2106
http://tinyurl.com/z48hplw

“Abducted Nigerian Girls Have Not Been Abandoned, U.S. Says,” by
Helene Cooper, April 20, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/z4bj6md

“Boko Haram still a threat months after ‘technical victory,’ by
Bradley Klapper|AP, Washington Post, April 19, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/h3dfy48

“What’s Worse Than a Girl Being Kidnapped?,” by Adaobi Tricia
Nwaubani, New York Times, April 15, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/hcak5ch

“Boko Haram kidnapped 276 girls two years ago. What happened to
them?,” by Kevin Sieff, Washington Post, April 14, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/zj57sxg

“Boko Haram Turns Female Captives Into Terrorists,” by Dionne
Searcey, New York Times, April 7, 2016 http://tinyurl.com/jqyxw2d

“They were freed from Boko Haram’s rape camps. But their nightmare
isn’t over,” by Kevin Sieff, Washington Post, April 3, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/zxcpob3

For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on Nigeria, visit
http://www.africafocus.org/country/nigeria.php

++++++++++++++++++++++end editor’s note+++++++++++++++++

Nigeria’s Displaced Women and Girls: Humanitarian Community at Odds,
Boko Haram Survivors Forsaken

Refugees International, April 21, 2016

http://www.refugeesinternational.org/reports/2016/nigeria

It has been two years since the world’s deadliest terrorist
organization – Boko Haram – abducted 271 girls from their high
school in the town of Chibok – a tragedy that would shine much
needed international attention on conflict in northeastern Nigeria.
Sadly, the Chibok girls are only one part of a much larger story of
violence against women and girls in the northeast. But the attention
on this remote corner of the Sahel has not translated into sustained
humanitarian assistance for all those that have been affected.
Humanitarian stakeholders are under tremendous strain due to the
enormity of the emergency, conflicts between aid agencies, limited
resources, and an ineffective partner in the Nigerian state. As a
result, the needs of all those whom the Chibok girls symbolize –
thousands upon thousands who have suffered gender-based violence at
Boko Haram’s hands – are being unaddressed. Moreover, the lackluster
humanitarian response is placing women and girls affected by Boko
Haram at further risk of gender-based violence.

Background

Northeast Nigeria has been the primary theater for the militant
group Boko Haram’s insurgency since 2009. Violence has ebbed and
flowed over the years as the insurgents evolved from a homegrown
uprising against the police in three states to a more sophisticated
and ruthless extremist Islamist group, which pledged allegiance to
ISIS in 2015. The sheer brutality of Boko Haram, marked by mass
abductions, indiscriminate killings, suicide bombings, sexual
violence, and slavery, has earned it the unsavory designation as the
world’s deadliest terrorist group. The toll is not certain, but
reportedly 20,000 have been killed as a result of the insurgency. In
2014, Boko Haram intensified its attacks, resulting in a sudden
growth in the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) arriving
in Maiduguri, the capital city of the northeastern state of Borno.

Much criticism, both domestic and international, has been leveled at
the Nigerian government for its perceived failure to deploy a more
robust strategy to eliminate the scourge of Boko Haram. Muhammadu
Buhari made the defeat of Boko Haram a central pillar of his
successful campaign for the 2015 presidential elections. He assumed
power in May 2015, and in December announced that Nigeria had
technically defeated Boko Haram – a declaration found to be
outlandish by many Nigeria watchers, as violence continues. Although
the validity of this statement is arguable, the Nigerian Army (NA)
did intensify its campaign against Boko Haram in 2015, “liberating”
– in their words – areas that were under the militants’ control.
This campaign resulted in further displacement in Borno, including
into Maiduguri.

Multiple reports document the horrors that women and girls have
experienced under Boko Haram. Further, a recent report documents the
difficulties that abducted women and girls have reintegrating back
into their families and communities, particularly for those labeled
as “Boko Haram wives.” Yet there is a dearth of information on what
and how humanitarian assistance is serving the very specific needs
of these women and girls.

In February 2016, Refugees International (RI) conducted a mission to
Nigeria to assess the needs of those displaced in Borno State, and
how the humanitarian community can best serve women and girls. The
RI team met with federal and state authorities, the UN,
international non-governmental organizations (INGO) and community-
based organizations, human rights defenders, local volunteers,
members of the donor and diplomatic communities in Abuja and
Maiduguri, and IDPs and host community members in Maiduguri. The
humanitarian crisis facing the aid community in the northeast is
nothing short of daunting.

The Humanitarian Panorama

The humanitarian crisis facing the aid community in the northeast is
nothing short of daunting. According to the 2016 Humanitarian Needs
Overview (HNO), 14.8 million people are affected in four states of
the northeast. 7 The UN estimates that of this number, seven million
are in need, three million of whom are estimated to be entirely
inaccessible. It is worthwhile to note, however, that precise
numbers are difficult to attain due to the humanitarian access
constraints. This is especially the case for Borno, where nearly 70
percent of the territory was inaccessible at the time of the HNO.
Consequently, most humanitarians believe that the numbers of people
in need are much higher.

Overall, there are an estimated 2.2 million displaced in the
northeast, according to the International Organization for
Migration’s most recent displacement tracking exercise. 9 This is a
sharp increase from the much more modest figure of 261,000 in
December 2014, as per the HNO. The vast majority of the displaced –
1.3 million – are in Maiduguri and its environs. Their arrival more
than doubled the population of the city in a single year. Only
approximately eight percent of the IDPs are in government-run IDP
camps or settlements. The Nigerian authorities only deliver
humanitarian assistance to those in camps, which are managed by the
National and State Emergency Management Agencies (NEMA and SEMA,
respectively). The remainder must fend for themselves, depending on
the kindness of relatives and hosts among the local population –
hosts that are increasingly exhausting their limited resources – as
well as local faith-based institutions that have neither the
resources nor the expertise to deliver humanitarian aid. A very
small percentage of IDPs are being served by the small INGO
community.

Access to food – both in and out of the camps – was the primary
concern cited by IDPs with whom RI spoke. According to figures
released in March 2016 by the UN Office for Affairs (OCHA), an
estimated 2.5 million children are malnourished. Within the
government-run camps, the number of displaced far outstrips the
number of water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities that
international standards call for in camp settings, forcing women and
girls to wait for hours in lines, with many ultimately opting for
open urination and defecation. One INGO working in the host
communities in Maiduguri asserts that nearly every household is
housing IDPs, in some cases multiple families, and host families are
now selling their assets to be able to feed displaced people under
their care. Livelihood opportunities are grossly limited for those
living both inside and outside of camps. Finally, several
displacement sites have been targeted by Boko Haram suicide bombers,
leading to restrictive policies involving basic human rights such as
freedom of movement, which impact both IDPs’ protection and their
ability to participate in income-generating activities.

Against this backdrop, at the time of RI’s visit, there were only a
handful of UN agencies, with very limited personnel, and less than
ten international organizations operating in Maiduguri. At time of
writing, the 2016 UN humanitarian appeal for Nigeria is dangerously
underfunded. As of April, only $33.7 million of the $248 million
proposed for the UN humanitarian response plan—just 14 percent—has
been met.

Boko Haram’s survivors, in the shadow of humanitarian action

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Alert,
UNICEF, and several journalists have all reported on the horrors of
life under Boko Haram and the very specific needs of women they have
interviewed – medical, psychological, livelihood, and community
reconciliation opportunities. Yet it is RI’s assessment that there
has been minimal effort to identify and/or address these women and
girls’ needs, much less target them as priority beneficiaries for
any programming. The humanitarian crisis in Borno State has led to
infinite protection risks for women and girls. Boko Haram has
abducted countless women and girls throughout its campaign in the
northeast. No one is entirely certain how many women and girls have
been abducted to date, in part because the Nigerian authorities have
yet to respond to civil society’s desperate calls for a survey in
the northeast, by which families could register the data of their
missing. Whatever the figure, it is surely dwarfed by the number
that have been exposed to Boko Haram’s brutality during its campaign
to overrun and control territory, of which gender-based violence
(GBV) has been a feature. Definitive counts of those who have been
subjected to Boko Haram’s rule in this manner are difficult to come
by, but it is reasonable to believe that it figures in the
thousands. As IDP numbers swell in Maiduguri, so do the number of
women and girl survivors of Boko Haram’s horrifying GBV tactics. As
the NA clears Boko Haram from territory, it rescues people who had
been trapped, the majority of them women and girls, and takes many
of them to displacement sites. In the month of March 2016 alone,
troops had rescued 11,595 hostages from Boko Haram, according to NA
Spokesman, Colonel Sanu Usman.

According to humanitarians with whom RI spoke, Nigerian authorities
share little to no information on its process for vetting women and
girls and releasing them. Some humanitarians, however, believe that
it is quite simply because there is no formal process. Further,
there is no process for identifying women and girls that have
escaped and fled to Maiduguri without the assistance of the
military. And there is no mechanism by which the military and
humanitarians can coordinate to identify women and girls so they can
benefit from much-needed services. RI interviewed one 14-year-old 14
who exemplified the protection risks this situation creates. She was
abducted during an attack on her village of Baga and taken as a wife
by a Boko Haram IDP women and children living in a host community in
Maiduguri.

…

During RI’s mission, only one humanitarian agency told the RI team
that procedures were in place to identify and provide services to
women and girls associated with Boko Haram, or for the women and
girls that are brought to Maiduguri on a near-daily basis by the
military. …

However, life for a woman or girl in the host communities is not
necessarily more secure. All of the displaced women living in host
communities whom RI interviewed spoke of the risks of violence. IMC
carried out a safety audit in the seven host communities where they
implement programs, and the three top concerns women expressed, in
order of priority, were domestic violence, rape, and denial of
resources. According to the women IMC serves, domestic violence has
become a serious issue due to food insecurity. Women suffer beatings
when they cannot provide food or when they ask for money to buy
food. On the third month of IMC programming, volunteers were
recording as many as twenty rapes per week in the seven communities.
Women are also reporting that they are often denied resources to
purchase medicines or food. When asking a group of women in a focus
group what self-care they practice to alleviate their trauma, RI
learned that women and girls are reportedly purchasing and drinking
bottles of cough syrup to “go to sleep and forget.”

There is no meaningful integrated GBV-prevention and response
programming in Maiduguri. …  To RI’s knowledge, at the time of
RI’s visit, only one INGO – International Medical Corps (IMC) – had
a holistic GBV prevention and response program that included
sensitization, referrals for medical care, and psychosocial
counseling, but the reach was limited to only seven host communities
and three IDP camps. However, this short-term U.S. government-
funded program is coming to a close, pending the acquisition of
alternative funding sources. Several other organizations were doing
psychosocial counseling for women and children, but they did not
specifically fall under the rubric of GBV.

…

Further, medical interventions designed specifically for survivors
of sexual violence across the board are limited due to an
unanticipated reason: the global displacement crisis. The pressures
on the global humanitarian system are reverberating in northeast
Nigeria: the agency mandated with procuring Inter-Agency
Reproductive Health kits, the United Nations Population Fund
(UNFPA), has been unable to secure a shipment of Kit 5, the medical
kit designed to treat STIs. UNFPA’s suppliers in Denmark, China, and
the Netherlands informed the country office that they were unable to
fulfill the purchase order due to the overwhelming global demand;
their supplies are exhausted. Kits are currently under production
and should be made available to UNFPA Nigeria at the end of April
2016.

…

RI is also concerned that traditional humanitarian psychosocial
support programming may not be of the caliber that the context
warrants. The trauma endured by the Boko Haram-affected populations
cannot be underestimated. Community based organizations told RI that
apart from the suffering resulting from abduction, sexual violence,
the loss of partners and children, the violence of war, and loss of
all assets, Nigerian women in the northeast are also facing a
profound gender identity crisis. It is not the woman’s traditional
role to “bury one’s husband” or to be the head of a household, and
the rapidly shifting role is compounding the trauma they have
endured and imperiling their resilience capabilities.

According to service providers and some IDP women who chose to speak
about their mental health, women feel helpless, fear men, feel they
have lost all self-worth, and are hopeless when facing the
uncertainty of the future. When asking a group of women in a focus
group what self-care they practice to alleviate their trauma, RI
learned that women and girls are reportedly purchasing and drinking
bottles of cough syrup to “go to sleep and forget.” Upon further
investigation, RI learned that this is not a pre-existing coping
mechanism amongst women and girls. In fact, demand for cough syrup
in camps has increased such that supplies have become scarcer,
driving the price up from 60 Naira per bottle to 150-200 Naira.
Meanwhile, multiple international and local aid workers expressed
concern that some current UN and INGO psychosocial support
interventions may not be staffed adequately, contrary to what their
own literature might otherwise indicate. Aid workers highlighted
that several women’s safe spaces – tents – erected by one UN agency
are often empty. IDP women from several sites confirmed to RI that
they are unaware of trauma support programming and that the tents
are going unused.

The fact that GBV programming does not figure among core
humanitarian programming is a failure to global commitments to both
prioritize women and girls, and place GBV prevention and response
programming in its much-deserved category of a “lifesaving”
activity. On the contrary, one senior UNFPA staff member told RI
that a request to access UN Central Emergency Response Funds (CERF)
to hold a GBV referrals pathway workshop was denied on the basis
that “CERF funds can only be used for life-saving activities.”

…

**********************************************

Nigeria: Military Cover-Up of Mass Slaughter at Zaria Exposed

Amnesty International Press Release

22 April 2016

http://www.amnesty.org – Direct URL: http://tinyurl.com/jnafcom

Mass slaughter of hundreds of men, women and children by soldiers in
Zaria and the attempted cover-up of this crime demonstrates an utter
contempt for human life and accountability, said Amnesty
International as it publishes evidence gathered on the ground
revealing how the Nigerian military burned people alive, razed
buildings and dumped victims’ bodies in mass graves.

The true horror of what happened over those two days in Zaria is
only now coming to light. Bodies were left littered in the streets
and piled outside the mortuary. Some of the injured were burned
alive Netsanet Belay, Amnesty International

The report, Unearthing the truth: Unlawful killings and mass cover-
up in Zaria, contains shocking eyewitness testimony of large-scale
unlawful killings by the Nigerian military and exposes a crude
attempt by the authorities to destroy and conceal evidence.

“The true horror of what happened over those two days in Zaria is
only now coming to light. Bodies were left littered in the streets
and piled outside the mortuary. Some of the injured were burned
alive,” said Netsanet Belay, Amnesty International’s Research and
Advocacy Director for Africa.

“Our research, based on witness testimonies and analysis of
satellite images, has located one possible mass grave. It is time
now for the military to come clean and admit where it secretly
buried hundreds of bodies.”

More than 350 people are believed to have been unlawfully killed by
the military between 12 and 14 December, following a confrontation
between members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) and
soldiers in Zaria, Kaduna state.

IMN supporters – some armed with batons, knives, and machetes – had
refused to clear the road near their headquarters, the Hussainiyya,
for a military convoy to pass. The army has claimed that IMN
supporters attacked the convoy in an attempt to assassinate the
Chief of Army Staff. IMN members deny this.

Following an initial confrontation the military surrounded other
locations where IMN supporters had gathered, notably at the
residential compound of IMN leader Ibrahim Al-Zakzaky. Some people
were killed as a result of indiscriminate fire. Others appeared to
have been deliberately targeted.

All available information indicates that the deaths of protesters
were the consequence of excessive, and arguably, unnecessary use of
force.

Children injured and killed

Zainab, a 16-year-old schoolgirl, told Amnesty International: “We
were in our school uniforms. My friend Nusaiba Abdullahi was shot in
her forehead. We took her to a house where they treated the injured
but, before reaching the house, she already died.” A 10-year-old boy
who was shot in the leg told Amnesty International how his older
brother was shot in the head as they tried to leave the compound.
“We went out to try to shelter in a nearby house but we got shot.”

Shot and burned alive

On 13 December, two buildings within Ibrahim Al-Zakzaky’s compound,
one of which was being used as a makeshift medical facility and
mortuary, were attacked by soldiers. Alyyu, a 22-year-old student,
told Amnesty International that he was shot in the chest outside the
compound and was taken inside for treatment: “There were lots of
injured people in several rooms. There were dead bodies in a room
and also in the courtyard. Around 12-1pm soldiers outside called on
people to come out, but people were too scared to go out. We knew
they would kill us. Soldiers threw grenades inside the compound. I
saw one soldier on the wall of the courtyard shooting inside.”

One mother described a phone conversation with one of her 19-year-
old sons before he was killed alongside his twin brother and their
step brother and sister in the compound. “They are shooting those
injured one by one,” he told her.

As soldiers set fire to the makeshift medical facility in the
compound that afternoon, Yusuf managed to escape despite serious
gunshot wounds: “Those who were badly injured and could not escape
were burned alive,” he told Amnesty International. “I managed to get
away from the fire by crawling on my knees until I reached a nearby
house where I was able to hide until the following day. I don’t know
how many of the wounded were burned to death. Tens and tens of
them.”

Footage believed to have been shot on mobile phone by IMN supporters
after the incident shows bodies with gunshot wounds as well as
charred bodies strewn around the compound.

Cover-up

After the incident the military sealed off the areas around al-
Zakzaky’s compound, the Hussainiyya and other locations. Bodies were
taken away, sites were razed to the ground, the rubble removed,
bloodstains washed off, and bullets and spent cartridge removed from
the streets.

Witnesses saw piles of bodies outside the morgue of Ahmadu Bello
University Teaching Hospital in Zaria. A senior medical source told
Amnesty International that the military sealed off the area around
the morgue for two days. During that time he saw army vehicles
“coming and going”.

A witness described to Amnesty International what he saw outside the
hospital mortuary on the evening of 14 December: “It was dark and
from far I could only see a big mound but when I got closer I saw it
was a huge pile of corpses on top of each other.  I have never seen
so many dead bodies. I got very scared and run away. It was a
terrible sight and I can’t get it out of my mind.”

Another witness told the organisation how he had seen diggers
excavating holes at the site of the suspected mass grave: “There
were five or six large trucks and several smaller military vehicles
and they spent hours digging and unloading the trucks’ cargo into
the hole they dug and then covered it again with the earth they had
dug out.  They were there from about 1 or 2 am until about 5 am.  I
don’t know what they buried. It looked like bodies, but I could not
get near.”

Amnesty International identified and visited the location of a
possible mass grave near Mando. Satellite images of the site taken
on 2 November and 24 December 2015 show disturbed earth spanning an
area of approximately 1000 square metres. Satellite pictures also
show the complete destruction of buildings and mosques.

“It is clear that the military not only used unlawful and excessive
force against men, women and children, unlawfully killing hundreds,
but then made considerable efforts to try to cover-up these crimes,”
said Netsanet Belay.

“Four months after the massacre the families of the missing are
still awaiting news of their loved ones. A full independent forensic
investigation is long overdue. The bodies must be exhumed, the
incident must be impartially and independently investigated and
those responsible must be held to account.”

On Monday 25 April, the military are expected to give evidence to
the Judicial Commission of Inquiry established by the Kaduna State
Government in January 2016. On 11 April, a Kaduna State government
official told the Judicial Commission of Inquiry that the bodies of
347 members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) were collected
from the hospital mortuary and an army depot in Zaria and buried
secretly in a mass grave near Mando (outside the town of Kaduna) on
the night of 14-15 December. The IMN claim a further 350 people who
went missing during the incidents in Zaria remain unaccounted for.

During field research carried out in Kaduna state and Federal
Capital Territory (FCT) in February 2016, Amnesty International
delegates interviewed 92 people, including victims and their
relatives, eyewitnesses, lawyers and medical personnel. Attempts
were made to interview members of the military.

IMN leader Al-Zakzaky and his wife Zeinat Al-Zakzaky were arrested
and held incommunicado. They were only allowed access to their
lawyer for the first time on 1 April 2015, three and a half months
after their arrest. Amnesty International has not had access to
those who remain in detention but has received information from
medical sources that some of the detainees were not allowed access
to necessary medical care for several weeks after their arrest.

Amnesty International is calling for those IMN supporters charged in
connection with this incident to be tried promptly and fairly and
for those still held in detention without charge to be either
immediately charged or released.

*****************************************************

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