A woman in Maiduguri, Borno State has recounted the story of how soldiers invaded her home, tried to rape her and killed her husband who came to her defence.
In an interview with the BBC, the unnamed woman reported that soldiers of the Nigerian Army had forced their way into her home in the state capital and immediately tried to rape her. When her husband tried to come to her rescue, he was savagely beaten before he was shot.
The woman further told the BBC about how she was then dragged to an army checkpoint and dumped in a hole with her injured husband until the next morning when he was too weak to move.
She was released the next day without her husband whose corpse was later dumped at their home.
She narrated to the BBC, “It was 11pm, we were all asleep in the house when a soldier broke down the door. He came straight for me and grabbed me. I was shouting ‘I have a husband, I am married.’
“When my husband came in, the soldiers just knocked him down. I ran out with the children shouting for help.
“They just started to beat my husband all of them. One of them shot him. It grazed his head. I don’t know how long it was. They dragged him away. They came back, beat me, and then they dragged me to their checkpoint.
“They threw us in a hole and told us to lie down and threw sand on top of us. We spent the whole night in the hole. In the morning, they told us to get out, but my husband was too weak, I managed to climb out. There was blood all over my face.
“They told me to pull my husband out of the hole but I couldn’t do it. So they dragged him from the hole. They told me to go home and take care of my children.
“Later they came back. They had my husband. When I touched his body, he was dead. After I had fainted, it was the police who took me to the hospital.
“I remember everything about him. I was in love with him. He’s a very funny person. The children ask about him all the time. He is always on my mind. He took very good care of us.”
It remains unclear why the soldiers had been in their home that night, as the Nigerian army said they have no record of the attack after the family reported it.
The Boko Haram insurgency in the region has prompted a heavy military presence as several camps have been opened for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) whose homes have been affected.
The random attack against the woman’s family slightly mirrors other cases of extensive sexual abuse of women in the region carried out by security personnel drafted to protect their lives.
There have been several reports of security personnel sexually exploiting women and girls in camps, but despite the government’s acknowledgement of the reports, the investigations don’t usually amount to anything significant.
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