Former abductees tell their stories to Human Rights Watch:
Adam Taylor describes the disturbing findings:
What is life like for the women and girls held captive by Boko Haram? That’s one question Human Rights Watch (HRW) attempted to answer with a new video, in which international nongovernmental organization interviewed a number of people who had been kidnapped by Boko Haram and later released or escaped. In the video, girls detail how they were forced to convert and marry and, in some cases, were raped. In one particularly horrifying account, a young woman describes how she was forced to go on operations with the insurgents and carry their ammunition; she says she considered grabbing a gun and using it to kill herself.
HRW’s video comes as part of a wider 63-page report, “Those Terrible Weeks in their Camp,” which examines the Boko Haram kidnappings and the Nigerian government response to it. HRW reports that the extremist group has kidnapped more than 500 women and girls since 2009.
Charlotte Alter elaborates on the revelations that pertain to sexual assault:
According to the interviews in the report, Boko Haram does not consider any girls too young for marriage. After one 17-year old prisoner complained that she was not yet old enough to marry a Boko Haram commander pointed to his 5-year-old daughter and said, “If she got married last year, and is just waiting till puberty for its consummation, how can you at your age be too young to marry?”
Recent Dish on Boko Haram here.
The Dish 