Rights group Amnesty International on Tuesday issued a scathing report on Nigeria, calling the rape of women by its security forces ”endemic” while the government fails to bring the attackers to justice.
”Rape by police and security forces is endemic in Nigeria as [a result of] the abject failure of the Nigerian authorities to bring perpetrators to justice,” Amnesty officials said in presenting the 40-page report, entitled Nigeria: Rape — the silent weapon.
The report draws upon the testimony of survivors and identifies disturbing trends of rape and sexual violence against women and girls at the hands of police and security officials.
Amnesty, which quoted a recent survey carried out by the CLEEN Foundation, a Nigerian NGO, said that a total of 13 852 cases of rape and indecent assault were reported between 1999 and 2005, with the highest figure of 2 284 cases recorded in 2001 alone.
The report indicted the government for allegedly failing in its ”obligation to exercise diligence”, a situation that leads to perpetrators escaping punishment while victims of rape are denied any form of redress.
It also outlined obstacles to the reporting and prosecution of rape in Nigeria, including corruption and incompetence.
The Amnesty document, to which some local human rights organisations also contributed, detailed cases of rape allegedly committed against women and girls by soldiers and police officers deployed in the past to various parts of the country to maintain law and order.
A woman who alleged that she was forcefully raped by soldiers in May 1994 in southern Ogoniland told journalists with sobs about her experience.
The woman, simply identified as Grace, said that the soldiers also shot dead her two children after the rape ostensibly to destroy evidence.
Nigerian Army spokesperson Colonel Ayo Olaniyan told Agence France-Presse that the ”issue was being over-flogged”.
He declined further comments until he has read the Amnesty report. — AFP
