There are emerging reports of how some military men deployed to engage bandits raped women, plundered valuables and killed people in the Konshinsha local government area of Benue State in April.
According to the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), a lot of atrocious activities were carried out in a village, Bonta, likening it to a slaughterhouse. The newspaper also reported that the Nigerian military brought down houses, schools and clinics. They shot at defenceless villagers and wasted dozens of lives.
“They claimed they were here to protect us but they only came for us,” says Emmanuel Gungul, a youth leader. “They destroyed our properties and slept with our women, all in the name of chasing the bandits that killed their soldiers.”
FIJ revealed that the community clinic was burnt down by the Army.
Dr. Akera Terkimbir who does not know how the war started shared his ugly experience during the crisis.
In March 2019, he was deployed as the head of the medical team at the Bonta Health Centre. Now, the military has brought down the clinic.
She removed the syringe needle plugged into her vein and ran for her life. Unfortunately, Kumaga fell flat on the ground when a bullet from the military’s sporadic shootings hit her. She died immediately.
Mbanengen Pendamo, 28, was said to have died at home. He managed to escape the soldiers’ vengeance in the clinic. But on his way home, the military airstrike struck him. He died in front of his house, in the pool of his blood.
“We also had a foetus born prematurely which died in the hands of its mother during the attack,” Terkimbir shared. “It’s a sad moment for us.”
“We also had a foetus born prematurely which died in the hands of its mother during the attack,” Terkimbir shared. “It’s a sad moment for us.”
The newspaper also reported stories of rape and loots that went down during the crisis.
Mercy Thomas, 31, was having a nap in her shady room. The time was 11:40 pm. The sex worker woke up suddenly, noticing that a “cold iron” was placed on her forehead. As she opened her eyes, an army officer “appeared like a ghost” and ordered her to open her legs.
“I was really scared,” Mercy recalled. “He removed my pants and started having sex with me. I cried but nobody came to my aid.”
It was a busy night at the Man City brothel in the Shangef Tiev area of Benue. The Army’s invasion 50 kilometres away in Bonta did not stop the daily routine of sex workers and their customers.
After killing dozens of innocent citizens in Bonta, the soldiers returned to cause more mayhem, looting bottles of alcohol and raping women and sex workers.
“When he finished having sex with me,” Mercy continued, “he began to beat me for not crying while he was sleeping with me. He said he did not enjoy sleeping with me because I did not cry. Then he left.”
During an interview with Hembadoon, another sex worker at the brothel, her eyes were filled with tears. The 28-year-old lady narrated how she was also raped at gunpoint by a soldier at night.
“I was sleeping outside of our yard,” Hembadoon recalled. “I suddenly felt all wasn’t well. I woke up from sleep and saw that an army officer had placed a gun on the pillow side of my bed. He sat and watched me sleep.
“When I woke up I knew everything was not fine as I couldn’t see anyone. The army officer ordered me into my room and slept with me at gunpoint.”
Doris was gang-raped by more than two military officers in her room. Accounts of Hembadoon and Mercy reveal that she was a salesgirl at the brothel and not a sex worker, but the soldiers “raped and violated her."
“As for my sister, Doris, she’s not one of us but she was raped by those officers,” Mercy said. “She was seriously manhandled by two of the military guys.”
Although sex with strange men is the daily business of Hembadoon and Mercy, they admitted the army officers never sought their consent when they barged into their brothel. They said the officers raped other women, like Doris, who are not sex workers.
“Those army guys will not see anything good in life for what they did,” Mercy said her eyes filled with anger.
Their atrocities did not end with murder and rape, they also robbed the defenceless citizens in broad daylight.
During the vengeful raid, the soldiers turned a local church, St. Lucy’s parish, to an operational base, denying the worshipers of their activities. The military men also invaded a bar and looted bottles of alcohol.
“Pray for my home place, Shangev Tiev, so they can survive this onslaught by well-armed soldiers,” a resident had told FIJ. “They have taken over the parish house at Awajir and have made it a barrack of sorts. This has become their operational base. From here, they pounce on anything they want and it is theirs.”
Three other residents verify the claim, saying, “The soldiers watched football for free anywhere and at the end took a percentage of the viewing centre’s collection."
“They drank in the bar after raping women. If you see what people went through. It’s so pathetic,” another resident revealed.
In the event of the agony unleashed in the community, students were forced out of school.
The expanse of the Bonta Primary School has been turned into a learning ground for ghosts. The secondary school was razed. Other private and public schools in the community are shut down indefinitely.
Achirgbenda Gideon, 55, is still shocked by the level of destruction caused by the military men. It baffles him that “the soldiers could be so heartless” that they couldn’t spare schoolchildren.
“Everything was destroyed,” Gideon said. “They couldn’t even pity children.”
“They came and started shooting. They were camouflaged, and they were putting on explosive devices. Some people developed hearing problems due to the sounds of explosives. The aeroplane was moving around and the ground soldiers were moving too. They were destroying houses.”
Before the invasion, there were over 400 pupils in the primary section of the school and about 600 in the secondary section, according to Gideon, but they have all been forced out of school.
Nigeria already had more than 10 million out-of-school children — the highest in the world — according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). By invading and destroying schools in Bonta, the military has added over a thousand to the number of out-of-school children in the country.
“And, unfortunately, no government official has shown interest in our matter,”
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