The Nigerian Army has been accused by an international news agency, Reuters in an investigation, of carrying out secret mass abortions on victims of terrorist attacks in the north-east.
The news agency reports the devious abortions by the Nigerian Army has been going on secretly since 2013 in the North-East.
Investigations carried out by Reuters stated that at least 10,000 pregnancies among women and girls were terminated.
The investigation reads in part, “The existence of the army-run abortion programme hasn’t been previously reported. The campaign relied on deception and physical force against women who were kept in military custody for days or weeks.”
Some military officials who were interviewed during the investigation revealed that some victims who resisted the move to abort their pregnancy were either beaten or drugged into compliance.
The report added, “Three soldiers and a guard said they commonly assured women, who often were debilitated from captivity in the bush, that the pills and injections given to them were to restore their health and fight diseases such as malaria.
“In some instances, women who resisted were beaten, caned, held at gunpoint or drugged into compliance.
“Others were tied or pinned down, as abortion drugs were inserted inside them, said a guard and a health worker.”
Reuters in the investigation noted that forced abortions have occured in at least five military facilities and five civilian hospitals in the region, especially in Maiduguri, the Borno capital.
The news agency, however, could not state who created the abortion programme.