Nigerian military may have conducted at least 10,000 secret and often forced abortions on women who were impregnated by Boko Haram insurgents, it has been learnt.
Reuters made this disclosure, stating also that since 2013 as the nation looked to crack down on the insurgency group, most of the abortions were allegedly forced.
No clear reasons were stated as to why the Nigerian military did this.
According to the foriegn medium, the details on this were gathered from victims of the forced abortion, health care workers and military members.
The report detailed a clandestine abortion program launched because senior officials reportedly believed infants born to insurgent fathers were “predestined” to “one day take up arms against the Nigerian government.”
One civilian health care worker described the program as “sanitizing the society” as women, largely without their consent, were given pills and injections to force abortions after being kidnaped and often raped by members of Boko Haram.
Four soldiers described for the publication how they were told by their superiors that the abortions were necessary to “destroy insurgent fighters before they could be born.”
Soldiers detailed how women would either be separated in the field following rescue operations or later taken in groups to military facilities or civilian hospitals to undergo a required abortion.
Some women who resisted the military’s efforts after learning about the abortion program were forced to endure the procedure by being beaten, caned, tied down, held at gunpoint or drugged into submission, Routers investigation found.