Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima has called for proper profiling of the rescued women and children from the camp of Boko Haram insurgents especially those who are pregnant.
In a statement by his spokesman Isa Umar Gusau on Monday in Maiduguri after a closed door meeting the governor earlier had with some government officials over the weekend in Maiduguri.
The meeting followed the recent rescue of hundreds of women and children from the Sambisa Forest by the Nigeria Army as the onslaught on the Boko Haram insurgents intensifies.
Shettima narrated that, the insurgents shared weird believes and ideologies amongst them that “whoever doesn’t share their ideology is an infidel and as such his wife and property can be freely acquired by the sect members with the wives serving as slaves that should satisfy sexual urge of their masters.
“It is also held amongst the sect members that children fathered by them are likely to share their ideology later in life and succeed their parents in years to come and as such the circle will be maintained.”
Part of the statement reads in full; “I am happy with the recovery of hundreds of women and children, it is a thing of joy that they have been freed alive. However, I am also very worried about what the future holds for us if what I have gathered about these insurgents works according to their plan. I remember discussing this in an elaborate interview I granted to the Sunday Trust last year. These people (Boko Haram) have a certain spiritual conviction that any child they father will grow to inherit their ideology whether they live with the children or not. They also believe that whoever does not hold their ideology is an unbeliever that should be killed and rendered homeless and whatever belongs to him or her becomes a legitimate booty recovered from enemies. This booty includes women that are then allocated to ranking leaders of the sect as sex slaves.
“The sect leaders make very conscious effort to impregnate the women, some of them, I was told even pray before mating, offering supplications for God to make the products of what they are about doing become children that will inherit their ideology. After getting their captives pregnant, they keep them to allow the pregnancy mature to an extent of say four or more months to make abortion difficult or impossible for the women due to life threats in carrying out abortions at that level.
”They abandon the women afterwards to go and give birth anywhere else. In most cases, the women return home or get helped by traditional birth attendants. I wouldn’t be surprise if in some cases, some of the women deliver in captivity and the children grow to four or five years since the sect have been operating for years, perhaps the Sambissa camps might have been in existence since 2009 or afterwards. The sect is known to usually have medical teams and make shift clinics for treating injured men and other health challenges. I do not have any official information yet regarding these issues but I have read from some online media houses that many girls were rescued with visible pregnancy and some with newly born babies. Of course, I expect our security agencies to establish the paternity of all children recovered from interactions with the victims and other forms of investigation.
“My major concern is how we as stakeholders from the Federal and State Governments will manage women that might be affected. I am seriously worried with the fact that most women tend to hate and abandon children they deliver from rape. Now, the problem is that these children could go to the streets unattended to; they then lack access to food, healthcare and education. The result is that they could indeed inherit their fathers somehow. We also don’t know whether the sect members would after putting a woman in the family way, identify them with particular communities and put a mechanism to monitor the children and whisk them away in future.
“So, after establishing the paternity of the children and background of those pregnant where any is found to be pregnant, the Federal Government will have to work with State Governments whose citizens are affected, so that we get the involvement of medical and psychosocial specialists as well as child welfare experts so that we deal with the situation by properly documenting these kids without getting them stigmatized, monitoring and working towards raising these kids to become educated future leaders without the slightest ideologies of their fathers in order for us to cut the circle being envisaged. We can achieve this in order to safeguard the future of our communities. We must show love to these innocent children as much we should support the innocent mothers. This is equally in our enlightened self interest,” Shettima was quoted saying.
