The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has revealed that Nigeria is responsible for grave and systematic violations of women’s and girls’ rights amid multiple mass abductions.
The Committee in a report released on Wednesday, said that at least 1400 students have been kidnapped from schools since the Chibok abduction in 2014.
“The abduction of the Chibok girls was not an isolated tragedy, but part of a series of mass abductions targeting schools and communities across northern Nigeria,” said Nahla Haidar, Chair of the Committee.
“While such attacks had started earlier, Chibok marked the beginning of increased international attention of a decade-long pattern of mass abduction.”
The Committee’s inquiry report was published after a two-week confidential visit to Nigeria in December 2023. During the mission, the CEDAW delegation visited Nigeria’s capital Abuja and different states, including Adamawa, Borno, Enugu, and Kaduna. According to school staff, they were the first UN delegation to have visited Chibok Government Secondary School since the mass abduction in 2014.
The delegation the report noted met with government officials, including the Director of the Women Development Department and the Director of Defence and Security, as well as representatives from the Nigerian Armed Forces and the Police Service Commission.
They also visited the internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in Abuja and interviewed victims of abductions by Boko Haram and women and girls victims of other abductions for ransom.
The report documented harsh conditions in Boko Haram and other armed groups’ detention, where the Chibok girls were not given adequate food and beaten if they disobeyed.
Many were forced to marry fighters, convert their religion, and some gave birth in captivity. Other survivors of abductions for ransom by other armed groups faced extremely high risks of sexual violence, often suffering repeated rape and physical violence.
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