COAS debunks report of alleged massacre of children by soldiers

The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Faruk Yahaya, has debunked a report accusing soldiers of allegedly killing children in the fight against terrorism in the Northeast.

It would be recalled that Reuters last December claimed that the Nigerian military carried out a covert campaign that resulted in the termination of at least 10,000 pregnancies among women who had been liberated from Boko Haram militants in the unrest-stricken region.

The report which has sparked outrage around the world claims that the Nigerian military had since 2013, engaged in a covert, widespread, and illegal abortion programme in the nation’s northeast, eliminating at least 10,000 pregnancies among women and girls who had been abducted and sexually assaulted by Islamic militants.

Countering the report at a Special Independent Investigative Panel on Human Rights Violations in the Implementation of Counter Insurgency Operations in the North East (SIIP-North East), Yahaya noted that the Nigerian military is among the best in the world and that its operations are governed by laws that are consistent with fundamental human rights.

In his words, “The armed forces are professional armed forces guided by rules and regulations under an elected government with the Commander in Chief and institutions that are there, we all know.”

“Some people think we are on top of trees, and that’s why they are writing what they are writing sometimes. This army is a professional army, armies’ work is universal, we have gone on courses, and there is nowhere we have gone that we have not performed. If you go to institutions in the world including the US, and the UK, you will see Nigerians there, professionals.”

The COAS accused Reuters of “acting a script” given the military’s dominance over Boko Haram insurgents in recent years.

According to him, the areas cited in the report are heavily guarded and would require military escorts for anyone to pass through.