A devastating report by @Reuters about a mass programme of forced abortion ran by the Nigerian military in the struggle against #BokoHaram reuters.com/investigates/s…. A thread...
The report is amply sourced (a remarkable job by Reuters, given the sensitivity of the topic). And it is convincing. And things we know otherwise add to the plausibility.
As is clear in the extracts from several military and civilians involved in the programme, there was a combination of worry and suspicion about the children being born from women who had an association, voluntary or else, with Boko Haram.
Rejection from society & families (women tainted by pregnancies & births deemed illegitimate, even when actually married to BH fighters rather than just slaves) & suspicion by state & military (what to do with these countless children born into BH?) resonated with each other.
In Africa, children have long been turned into security problems (subjected to “securitisation”, as constructivist IR specialist call it): the “youth bulge” is frequently mentioned as a major cause of insurgency and instability (not entirely without basis).
Once one has constructed a "surplus life", a whole "classe (d'âge) dangereuse", killing makes sense...
In Nigeria, there has long been a peculiar concern re: Muslim youths from the north. The image of the dirt-poor rural kids begging in cities to pay for their sustenance while studying at the Quranic schools, the tsangaya, has long very present in takes on Boko Haram.
It is distorted, that image, as HannahHoechner has shown (though it is in fact true that quite a few tsangaya kids or former tsangaya kids from Borno eventually joined the insurgency, sometimes out of choice or under duress). books.openedition.org/ifra/1778
This concern about the birth rate in the mostly Muslim north has had all sorts of echoes in Nigerian politics. Christians often worry that Muslims will take over the country.
A number of northern Muslims believe that polio vaccination campaigns are in fact sterilisation campaigns to keep Muslim demographic growth in check. Demographics is a big issue in Naija. Very sensitive.
As can be seen from some of the quotes from the personnel involved in the abortion programme, it’s quite plausible that many of its promoters and participants considered the programme an act of mercy, a chance given to the women.
This should really not surprise us, especially in line of this 2016 report by International Alert on “perceptions of children born of conflict-related sexual violence and women and girls associated with Boko Haram” international-alert.org/publications/b…
International Alert made clear that “The children who have been born of sexual violence are at an even greater risk of rejection, abandonment and violence.”
Some thoughts about the timeline – the programme started apparently in 2013 – at a moment when the army was really feeling the pressure of the insurgents, was taking massive losses, was angry, was feeling overwhelmed. It had huge problems processing suspects.
And so segments in the security system went into killing mode in various ways. Lots of prisoners were just slaughtered by the CJTF and military (gruesome videos circulated at the time).
The prison in Giwa Barracks was overflowing, and a lot of prisoners were kept in conditions that led to their deaths. It is very plausible that many people in the security machinery knew and did not care much.
Also, remember the gruesome execution by Cameroonian soldiers of two suspected BH female associates and their baby children?
I think (or hope?) things have changed a bit since then – the security system is less overwhelmed, some international assistance has upgraded detention facilities, and reintegration of BH associates has been massive and rather peaceful.
But I would not be surprised that some sort of path dependency operates and that there are still cases... Even if things have changed, the past and present of this matter is a very serious one and needs to be addressed.
The whole story would make another horrible chapter in the thoughtful examination of the history population control by @mattspast, Fatal Misconception : The Struggle to Control World Population… hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?is…... Population control in COIN times…
One thing is remarkable in the report: a number of the women explain that they would not have been averse to abortions, but resent not being told, not being asked. Abortions were just forced upon them (and sometimes through very dangerous, deadly protocols).
The counter-insurgency state is the heir to the postcolonial developmental state and the colonial command state in that it does not care to ask. It just knows what’s best… For the greater good, it can decide who dies.
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