U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Friday said the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on Nigerian authorities to look into claims of widespread and coerced abortions allegedly carried out by the Nigerian army.
According to a Reuters report on Wednesday, the Nigerian Army has operated an unlawful, routine, and covert abortion operation in the country's northeast at least since 2013.
According to dozens of witness reports and documents seen by Reuters, the operation involved terminating at least 10,000 pregnancies among women and girls, many of whom had been abducted and raped by Islamist militants.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
"The Secretary-General takes note with concern of the allegations of systemic and coerced abortions reportedly perpetrated by the Nigerian Army against women and girls who had already been victimized by Boko Haram," Dujarric said in an email to Reuters.
Guterres called for a thorough investigation and "immediate remedial actions and accountability measures," if necessary.
"We call on the Nigerian authorities to fully investigate these allegations and make sure there's accountability," Dujarric told reporters later on Friday.
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said the Biden administration was "deeply troubled."
"Our embassy in Abuja is seeking further information, including from the government of Nigeria and stakeholders working in this space," the spokesperson said. "We have encouraged the government of Nigeria to take the allegations seriously and to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation, and we will continue to do so."
Nigeria's defense headquarters announced on Thursday that the military will not look into the report because it was untrue.
Reacting to the allegations, Maj.-Gen. Jimmy Akpor, Director of Defence Information, said “wickedness really runs in the veins of some people and it surely runs deep in the veins of the Reuters team that concocted such evil for interrogation”.
Akpor described the Reuters' series of stories as a collection of insults against Nigerians and their culture.
“Irrespective of the security challenges we face as a nation, Nigerian peoples and cultures still cherish life.
“Hence, Nigerian military personnel has been raised, bred, and further trained to protect lives, even at their own risk especially, when it concerns the lives of children, women, and the elderly.
“This much is reflected in Standing Operating Procedures (SOPs), Concepts of Operations, Rules of Engagements (ROEs), and other documents that guide military operations.
“Hence, nowhere has the Nigerian military operated – Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Rwanda, Yugoslavia, [Darfur] Sudan, Gambia, and Guinea Bissau, amongst others — that there was any trace or allegation of infanticide.
“The Nigerian military will not, therefore, contemplate such evil of running a systematic and illegal abortion program anywhere and anytime and surely not on our soil, Akpor stated.
According to Reuters, Nigeria's Information Minister Lai Mohammed could not immediately be reached for comment on the U.N. call for an investigation.
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