There's No Escaping Evil in Nigeria if You're a Woman

Nigeria sends female police to guard women in refugee camps fleeing Boko Haram

By Doug G. Ware UPI

In a refugee camp for internally displaced persons near Yola, Nigeria, a father holds photographs of his 18-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son, both of whom were kidnapped by members of Boko Haram during an attack on the family’s village. Photo courtesy UNICEF/Sebastian Rich

LAGOS, Portugal, (UPI) -- The Nigerian government has sent about 100 female police officers to a relief camp to guard females displaced by Boko Haram and investigate claims that they're being re-victimized there by authority figures, officials said Monday.

Nigerian police commissioner Damian Chukwu said Monday that the officers will guard the women, who escaped the terrorist insurgency in northern Nigeria.

The government's move is also motivated by a report last week by Human Rights Watch that dozens of the girls and women at the camps, who've been displaced by Islamist insurgents belonging to the group Boko Haram, have been sexually abused by camp leaders, policemen and soldiers.

These are not the Chibok girls who recently returned, but many villages in northeast Nigeria were torched by Boko Haram over the past few years and most survivors fled to refugee camps.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said he was "shocked" and "worried" about the report and ordered an investigation into the allegations. The female officers from the Borno Police Command, Chukwu noted, will help "dig out" the truth about what's happening at the camps.

Who is going to protect the female police officers?

The police commissioner said many of the female officers are part of a special panel that will take over operation of the camps -- thereby removing the prospective abusers from being in a position to abuse.

"I have constituted a [police] committee ... to take over the daily running of the camps," Chukwu added. "It is interesting to say that most members of the committee are females.

"The male officers will be limited to handling of the territorial coverage and patrol within the camps."

Boko Haram, a militant insurgency group established in 2002, has carried out attacks in Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon. Formerly allied with al-Qaida, it pledged allegiance to the Islamic State last year. It's now considered the official West African offshoot of the terror group known by the acronyms ISIL and ISIS, since it appointed Abu Musab al-Barnawi as Boko Haram's leader in August.

Boko Haram was responsible for the mass kidnappings of more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls in April 2014. Nearly two dozen have since been freed and rescued, but most remain unaccounted for.

Nigeria Admits Failed Chibok Girls Swap Deals

Nigeria said it was committed to rescuing the 218 Chibok girls still held captive by Boko Haram (AFP Photo/)

Abuja (AFP) - Nigeria opened negotiations with Boko Haram over the release of the kidnapped Chibok girls last year, but the talks were derailed due to a split in the extremist group, a minister said Friday.

Speaking at a press conference in the capital Abuja, information minister Lai Mohammed said the Department of State Services (DSS) started negotiations with the Islamists in July 2015.

In exchange for the girls, who were kidnapped in April 2014 from a school in the remote northeastern town of Chibok, Boko Haram demanded the release of some of its fighters.

Out of the 276 girls kidnapped, scores escaped in the hours after the kidnapping, while another was rescued earlier this year.

Mohammed said that by August 2015 the government was close to clinching the swap deal when Boko Haram issued a new set of demands.

"This development stalled what would have been the first release process of the Chibok girls," Mohammed said.

New talks that began in November were eclipsed by a leadership struggle happening in Boko Haram at the time.

The first signs of a rift appeared after longtime chief Abubakar Shekau pledged allegiance to IS in March 2015 and changed Boko Haram's name to Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

By August this year, Abu Musab al-Barnawi -- the son of Boko Haram's founder Mohammed Yusuf -- was appointed head of the group, with recent reports of clashes between rival factions in northeast Nigeria's Borno state, near Lake Chad.

Mohammed said Nigeria was committed to rescuing the remaining 218 Chibok girls still held captive by Boko Haram, who have killed at least 20,000 people in northeast Nigeria in a wave of raids, suicide attacks and bombings since 2009.

"In spite of the current division amongst members of the terrorist group, which has seriously affected efforts to release the girls, renewed efforts have commenced using our trusted assets and facilitators," Mohammed said.