SAN FRANCISCO, January 23, (THEWILL) – Three special rapporteurs on human rights from the United Nations, UN, have urged the Nigerian government to increase its efforts to assist women and children freed from Boko Haram captivity in the country’s conflict-riven Northeast.
The human rights experts, after a five-day visit to the region, said there was an “urgent and pressing need for effective measures to address stigma, ostracism and rejection of women and children” as a result of their captivity.
Aside the over 200 Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014, the human rights experts say there are thousands of others seized in recent years who have forced into marriage with Islamist fighters and subjected to physical and psychological abuse.
They maintained in a statement that “efforts at community cohesion, peace-building and reconciliation must start now and accelerate as people begin to return from displacement.”
Access to a “just and effective remedy” in the courts was also “paramount to their recovery and reintegration”, they added.
The UN team, who specialise in child welfare issues, contemporary slavery and healthcare, noted that they recognised Nigeria’s efforts to find and free those abducted.
But they said “the lack of information on the steps taken to find abducted persons, including the Chibok girls, and document cases of kidnappings and abductions remains a source of major concern.”
The rapporteurs listed other measures required to include: rebuilding education and healthcare facilities in an area where schools have been used as camps for the displaced and hospitals bombed or set on fire.
