Nigerian authorities have failed the girls and young women who escaped Boko Haram captivity in northeastern Nigeria, according to an Amnesty International report released Sunday. Boko Haram, a violent Islamist organization based in the country’s northeastern region, has been locked in conflict with government forces for over a decade. The conflict has left a destructive path of displacement and human rights abuses through northeast Nigeria, resulting in a deeply-rooted humanitarian crisis.
The report, entitled “Help Us Build Our Lives”: Girl Survivors of Boko Haram and Military Abuses in North-East Nigeria, collates the lived experiences of 126 escapees interviewed between 2019 and 2024 and details ongoing neglect by authorities. The report outlines extensive human rights abuses and numerous crimes against humanity: trafficking, abduction, forced marriage, displacement, enslavement, and sexual violence, compounded by further violations in military detention. The survivors desperately need specialist reintegration support but have been left bereft by the response of authorities, Amnesty International asserts.
The girls and young women abducted by Boko Haram were often forced into marriages as early adolescents, characterized by sexual violence and domestic servitude. Their escape did not mark the end of their abuse. Those rescued by the Nigerian military or Civilian Joint Task Force were soon subject to unlawful detention and violence. According to the report, “Thirty-one girls and young women were unlawfully held in military detention for anywhere between several days and almost four years between 2015 and mid-2023, typically because of their real or perceived association to Boko Haram.” These experiences form part of a broader, disturbing pattern of arbitrary detention by the Nigerian military, particularly of children.
Samira Daoud, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa, remarked, “These girls, many of them now young women, had their childhood stolen from them and suffered a litany of war crimes, crimes against humanity and other rights abuses. They are now showing remarkable bravery as they seek to take control of their future.”
To successfully reintegrate, the survivors desperately require access to healthcare, education, and vocational training. However, mental health and psychosocial services are minimal, and they face the stigma of being labeled a “Boko Haram wife.” According to one interviewee, “They [the host community] always abuse us. They don’t give us anything. We always feel we are a burden to them.”
Despite this, authorities continue to dodge accountability. When Amnesty International wrote to Nigeria’s federal and state authorities with its main research earlier in April, the Nigerian military’s response was a reactive denial of the survivors’ credibility. The report calls on Nigerian government authorities, UN agencies, and donor governments to meet Amnesty International at the table and urgently implement tailored reintegration services.