Reuters releases fresh reports of massacre, as Nigerian govt denies abortion camp by military
Nigeria’s minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, has described as fake news and disinformation a Reuters report accusing Nigerian Army of running a secret, systematic and illegal abortion programme in the North East since 2013.
In the report, it was alleged that at least 10, 000 pregnancies among women and girls, many of whom were abducted and raped by terrorists, were forcefully terminated.
Speaking Monday in Abuja at the 10th edition of the PMB Administration Scorecard Series (2015-2023), Mohammed said fake news and disinformation, if not checked, could have a negative impact on the nation’s fight against terrorism.
Describing the report as one without “a scintilla of evidence” which cited only anonymous sources and the reported review of phantom ‘documents,’ he said military operations in the North East were not arbitrary but based on the standard operating procedure and rules of engagement.
Mohammed said where there was any proven infraction or criminal act committed by any soldier, such personnel was never spared.
He said: “The federal government hereby categorically states that there is no ‘secret, systematic and illegal abortion programme’ being run by our military in the North East or anywhere across the country. We also hereby reject the accusation of running an abortion programme levelled against our military.
“For the record, the Nigerian military has rescued 11 Chibok girls with all their children; 2,018 other persons comprising 339 adult males, 660 adult females and 1019 children), while 82,645 persons; comprising 16,621 male fighters, 24,638 women and 41,386 children, have surrendered. The military has also neutralized 494 terrorists (note that this does not include terrorists neutralized through airstrikes and terrorists’ infighting).
“Why is this news agency not playing up this positive news but instead, they choose to give prominence to a phantom abortion story? Is this a ploy to demoralize and distract our fighting forces? Is it a strategy to set the world against Nigeria and cut off the support that is critical to crushing terrorists?”
New report accuses Army of massacre
Reuters published a fresh report on Monday in which it accused the Nigerian Army of carrying out a massacre of children during the ongoing war against terrorism.
The organisation said the report was based on the revelations of more than 40 soldiers and civilians who claimed to have witnessed the Nigerian military kill children or seen children’s corpses after a military operation.
According to the report, the estimates of children killed by the Army were in the thousands, adding that it investigated six of the incidents in which at least 60 died.
In the report, one of the victims claimed that her children were killed because they belonged to terrorists.
The report read, “The massacre, previously unreported, is just one instance in which the Nigerian Army and allied security forces have slaughtered children during their gruelling 13-year war against Islamist extremists in the country’s northeast, a Reuters investigation found.
“Soldiers and armed guards employed by the government told Reuters that Army commanders repeatedly ordered them to ‘delete’ children because the children were assumed to be collaborating with militants in Boko Haram or its Islamic State offshoot or to have inherited the tainted blood of insurgent fathers.
“More than 40 sources said they saw the Nigerian military target and kill children or saw the dead bodies of children after a military operation. These sources included both parents and other civilian witnesses, as well as soldiers who said they participated in dozens of military operations in which children were slaughtered.
Together, their estimates added up to thousands of children killed.”
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