Nigeria denies mass ‘abortion programme’ of Boko Haram victims

The Reuters report said at least 10,000 pregnancies were forcefully terminated, mostly without consent, in northeast Nigeria. Nigeria’s military has denied conducting a years-long illicit programme to carry out abortions among women and girls who have been victims of armed groups in the northwest, a claim reported by Reuters on Wednesday. “Since at least 2013, the Nigerian military has conducted a secret, systematic and illegal abortion programme in the country’s northeast, ending at least 10,000 pregnancies among women and girls,” the news agency said. It said many of the women and girls had been kidnapped and raped by armed fighters, adding that those who resisted an abortion ran the risk of being “beaten, held at gunpoint or drugged into compliance.” The report was based on witness statements from 33 women and girls, five health workers, and nine security personnel involved in the alleged programme, and on military documents and hospital records “describing or tallying thousands of abortion procedures”. “ Nigerian military will not, therefore, contemplate such evil of running a systematic and illegal abortion programme anywhere and anytime, and surely not on our own soil.” Religion plays a core part in Nigerian life, with Islam as the dominant faith in the north of the country, and Christianity in the south.