Report: Nigerian Military Ran Secret Abortion Program

Facts

• According to a Reuters investigation — which included interviews with 33 women and girls, five healthcare workers, and nine security personnel — the Nigerian military carried out a forced abortion operation in the country's northeast from 2013 to at least last November.
• The report claims the victims had been kidnapped and raped by Islamist Boko Haram militants. It adds that at least 10k abortions were performed throughout the program, ending pregnancies ranging from a few weeks to eight months along and mostly without the woman's consent or prior knowledge.
• While in military custody, the military reportedly told them they were receiving pills and injections to restore their health and fight diseases like malaria.
• According to soldiers and security personnel interviewed, some abortions proved fatal to the mother.
• In what sources said was an "elaborately engineered" program, the former captives were allegedly regularly transported in trucks with armed guards to barracks or hospitals across the northeast. The alleged abortions are said to have been performed in at least five military facilities and five hospitals across the region.
• The report alleges the motive for the program was to prevent the children of insurgents from one day following in their fathers' footsteps, though the military has stated that the entire report is a "body of insults" and that the "Nigerian peoples and cultures still cherish life."

Sources: Reuters, La Voce di New York, Kathmandu Post, and Vanguard Ngr.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by All Africa. While Nigeria works to defend its people against the horrific terrorist acts committed by Boko Haram, Reuters decided to write a defamatory piece attacking the very military that has devoted years to saving women and children from this group. Nigerian soldiers haven't taken children's lives but rather saved hundreds of those born in enemy territory just in the last few months alone.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Reuters. Details regarding this abortion program didn't come out of thin air but directly from both the female victims and military perpetrators themselves. The harrowing report depicts a large-scale abuse of human rights, and, if verified, swift action must be taken to hold those responsible accountable.