Nigeria to probe soldiers’ alleged misconduct at refugee camp

Nigeria’s army is investigating alleged misconduct by soldiers providing security at a camp for people who fled an militant insurgency, says a military spokesperson.

Boko Haram militants have displaced more than 2 million people in north eastern Nigeria since 2009 and over 20,000 people have been killed in that time.

Tens of thousands live in camps for displaced people guarded by government troops.

Army spokesperson Sani Usman says the military had “noted with great concern growing allegations of misconduct” by soldiers on security duty at a camp in Bama, a town in Borno state.

He says the allegations, which he did not describe in detail, were so far unsubstantiated but the chief of army staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Yusufu Buratai, had ordered an investigation.

Usman says Nigeria had no tolerance for abuses by army officers and soldiers, and anyone found culpable would be “severely dealt with”.

It is not the first time allegations of abuse by soldiers guarding refugee camps from Boko Haram have surfaced.

Last year Human Rights Watch says it had uncovered 43 cases of sexual abuse, including rape and exploitation, by security officers at camps in the northeast.

Boko Haram held a swathe of territory in the north east around the size of Belgium as of early 2015 but has since been pushed out of most of it by Nigerian troops backed by soldiers from neighbouring countries.

The jihadists continue to carry out suicide bomb attacks and armed raids in north eastern Nigeria as well as in neighbouring Cameroon and Niger.

– By REUTERS