Raped and trafficked •Pathetic stories of children in IDP camps

The insurgency in the North-East of the country has displaced so many families, but is doing much more damage. Many of underaged children are being raped and trafficked across the North. ISAAC SHOBAYO reports the recent interception of some of them in Jos, even as new pathetic stories of displaced people emerge by the day.

 

THE recent rescuing of 145 children in Jos, Plateau State, further intensified the pathetic plight of victims of insurgency, especially those displaed from their homes and children who were made orphans.

Though the 145 children were rescued, many other such victims, according to reports, were not so lucky. They had been made to ensure brutish experiences and left seriously traumatised.

As a result of the insurgency in the North-East of the country, many children, especially the underaged, are at risk having lost their parents and with nobody to take care of them. In many cases, relations who could have taken them in have also been displaced and separated from members of their own immediate families too. Thus, the children are left at the mercy of traffickers who often trade them for money, transporting them across several states of the north to where they could find those in need of them.

Where these children find succour in Internally Displaced Persons camps, they are often traumatised by people who rape them or abuse them one way or the other.

Lami, a young girl who was dumped at a Maiduguri Hospital, was a living example of the trauma that young children often go through as IDPs. According to one of the hospital staff who would not wish to be named because she was not authorised to do so,: “We have many of them. They have been either raped in the camp or sold by those that should be protecting them in the camps.”

Lami’s parents had been killed by Boko Haram insurgents in her village and she managed to reach Maiduguri, capital of Borno State, in an open truck that dropped people off at a camp for IDPs.

There are more heart-rending stories. A 16-year-old, girl, Laraba while narrating her story said an official of Gombe State emergency relief agency took her from the camp where she was to his home on the pretext that she would be helping his wife with house chores.

“I was happy leaving the camp, but when we got to his house, there was no wife. He raped me continuously for three nights, locked me inside his house for days and threatened me. I managed to escape and came back to the camp. I got pregnant. An old woman we call ‘Kaka’, gave me some leaves. I was bleeding for almost two weeks and smelling,” she said.

Another woman, Binta fled her home after Boko Haram attacked her family and she fled with her one-year old baby.

“From the first camp we were, a secondary school, I was told a family in Yola was coming to take us. They came to pick me and my baby. When I saw them, I was suspicious, but what could I do, without anyone to help? I put my baby in the car, and they sped away,” she said resignedly.

Binta is realistic to know that she might never see her baby again but her problem is what to tell her husband from whom she was separated in the aftermath of the attack on Mubi.

“I have lost all hope of ever seeing my baby again. I do not know whether my husband is alive or not. A family member says he was among those who ran to Cameroon.

“If he finds me tomorrow, what do I tell him about our baby?” she wondered.

Take another story for instance. 16-year-old Aisha, staying in an IDP camp in Gombe, Gombe State, is three months pregnant. She had been sexually abused by men from a community near the IDP camp and denied contact with anyone. She is also afraid of telling anyone about her ordeal because of fear of being kicked out. Moreover, the IDP camp officials are also accomplices in the rape and trafficking of underage children whose parents are not there in the camp with them.

“I want to go back home, but there is no home. My village is near Gwoza. They started sleeping with me since I came to the camp. I was told that if I refused, they would kill me. I feel like killing myself. I guess that’s the only way out of this misery,” Aisha said.

These pathetic stories form the background of the current trafficking in children across the North. Just recently, men of the Special Task Force in charge of security in Plateau and some parts of Bauchi state with headquarters in Jos recently intercepted two articulated vehicles transporting under-age children in their large number to neighbouring states. Apparently the children were taken away from IDP camps to be sold to willing buyers in parts of the region.

A source close to the Special Task Force told Sunday Tribune that the children, numbering 145 were sited at a check-point close to the University of Jos, which aroused the curiosity of the military men, who subjected the two vehicles to a search and found to their dismay, a large number of boys writhing in pain and packed like animals in transit.

The source further declared that the drivers of the vehicles could not offer any satisfactory answer as to the purpose of their movement to Nasarawa State, but simply stated that they were heading to Lafia where the boys would be handed to a certain Mallam to learn Arabic. Sunday Tribune findings, however, revealed that some of the children were being moved to Jos, Lafia and some parts of Kaduna State.

Sunday Tribune learnt further that on interrogation, the drivers said the 145 children were from Bauchi, Jigawa and Katsina states. The Special Task Force, however, after interrogation handed over the children to men of the Plateau State Police Command for further investigations and interrogations.

According to a statement signed by the state Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Tyopev Terna, the command confirmed the interception of the 145 boys said they were to be taken to different places.

The statement pointed out further that the Command is liaising with Jama’atu Nasir Islam (JNI), Plateau State chapter and other critical stakeholders in the state to establish contact with the two state governments for the return of the minors to their parents and to charge the masterminds of the act to court to serve as deterrent to others who intend to indulge in similar illegal acts.

Sunday Tribune findings further revealed that the children were totally unaware of their destination, nor could they phantom the purpose of their journey to the unknown destinations.

Though attempts to speak with the children was rebuffed by the police, a source close to the police disclosed that they were willingly given out by their parents to acquire koranic education but quickly added that many of them may find themselves in wrong places that could jeopardise their futures.

It was learnt further that the children have been handed over to the Bauchi State government from where they would be identified and taken to their respective states.

More investigations by Sunday Tribune has also revealed that Plateau State is gradually becoming a major route for child trafficking to neighbouring states and the southern part of the country. Though it could not be confirmed as of the time of writing this report, but Sunday Tribune gathered that another set of 15 female underage children were rescued recently in Jos, Plateau State by security agents.

It was learnt that they were being taken to the Southern part of the country for menial jobs and prostitution. The children have since been repatriated to their states of origin.

With additional agency reports