Human Rights Watch Releases Report Explaining Horrors that Victims of Boko Haram Faced in Captivity

The horrors of Boko Haram have been recorded and made available to the public. Today, the Human Rights Watch released a report, titled "Those Terrible Weeks in their Camp," detailing the current situation of the abduction and human rights abuses committed by the extremist group Boko Haram.

The report explains that the terrorist organization forces abductees into marriage and conversion, abuses them psychologically and physically, rapes them, and forces them in to labor.

One of the women who escaped a Boko Haram camp told Human Rights Watch, "I was dragged to the camp leader who told me the reason I was brought to the camp was because we Christians worship three gods. When I objected to his claim, he tied a rope around my neck and beat me with a plastic cable until I almost passed out. An insurgent who I recognized from my village convinced me to accept Islam lest I should be killed. So I agreed."

According to the Human Rights Watch (HRW), Boko Haram has kidnapped more than 500 hundred women and girls since 2009. The group purportedly targets students and Christians. They claim that western education is deadly and must be done away with.

"You are no longer in Nigeria. You are now in an Islamic kingdom. Here, women’s rights are respected, not like in Nigeria ... where you have all types of discrimination. This is the reason why we are rescuing Christian women like you," a Boko Haram commander said to a 19 year old abductee in the report.

Back in April of 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped 276 girls from the Chibok secondary school. A few of these girls escaped and contributed to the 63-page report released by HRW. The rest of the girls are still held captive by the terrorist group. Despite efforts at negotiation by the government, the girls have been away from their homes for 7 months.

Daniel Bekele, director of Africa Human Rights Watch, said, “Now the Nigerian government and its allies need to step up their efforts to put an end to these brutal abductions and provide for the medical, psychological, and social needs of the women and girls who have managed to escape.”

The actions of the terrorist group have forced many girls into discontinuing their education in secondary schools. Local and national governments in Nigeria have allocated funds to helping the victims, but the help has not been largely helpful. Many of the victims, including those interviewed by HRW, had not received, or were not aware of, the services offered by the Nigerian government.

In addition to the hundreds of kidnapped women and girls, Boko Haram has killed about 7,000 individuals since 2009. Many believe that the Nigerian government has not been effective in battling the situation.

“Abuses by Boko Haram and inadequate responses by the government are leaving many people in northern Nigeria beset by fear and anguish … The government and its allies need to step up their protection, support services, and prosecutions of abuses on both sides to stop this cycle of terror,” said Bekele.