The Nigerian Army has challenged Reuters, an international media organization, to provide evidence to support its claims that the military terminated 10,000 pregnancies of women during its counter-insurgency operations in the North East of the country.
The Army also requested evidence of alleged massacres of children and other sexual and gender-based violence during these operations.
Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Farouk Yahaya, made the request while appearing before a special investigative panel on human rights violations in counter-insurgency operations in the North East, set up by the National Human Rights Commission in Abuja.
General Yahaya stated that the Army is committed to fighting insurgency and restoring peace in the North East, and cannot abandon its duty to engage in the abortion of pregnancies.
He said
“The army is succeeding and many are happy that we are succeeding they cannot reverse our successes is therefore they rubbish it some people are gifted in writing just like in novels describing what they have never witnessed forgetting that in the military if you waste any ammunition you will be court-martialed we are not a mercenary Army we are a professional are in the National Human Rights Commission follows what is being done in the military and what we are doing is internal operation we are operating in our country the army is Nigerian army and we are not like Boko Haram that does not operate under code of conduct”.
Reuters had in a report published in December 2022, said “since 2013, the Nigerian military has been carrying out a clandestine, organized, and unlawful abortion program in the northeast region of the country. This program has resulted in the termination of at least 10,000 pregnancies among women and girls who had been victims of kidnapping and rape by Islamist militants. Witnesses report that those who resisted the abortions were subjected to beatings, held at gunpoint, or coerced into compliance through the use of drugs”.
General Faruk Yahaya also accused Reuters of acting on a deliberate script to undermine the successes recorded by the Army in the North East. Yahaya emphasized that the Army is a professional force trained to protect lives, and not like Boko Haram terrorists who do not operate under a code of conduct. The investigative panel will continue hearing from witnesses.