Nigerian rights body ends probe into abortion allegations against military

Nigeria's human rights commission said on Tuesday it had concluded hearings into an investigation of a Reuters report that the military ran a secret abortion programme in its fight against Islamist insurgents in the northeast.

Nigeria's human rights commission said on Tuesday it had concluded hearings into an investigation of a Reuters report that the military ran a secret abortion programme in its fight against Islamist insurgents in the northeast. The Nigerian military has previously said that the report was not true.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which is appointed by the government, established a special panel in February 2023 to investigate the allegations and has been conducting hearings in the capital Abuja and in northeastern Borno state. NHRC said the hearings had ended, with Borno's attorney general and the military addressing the panel on Tuesday. The commission did not say when it would be ready with its findings and whether these would be made public.

"The military urged the panel to absolve it from all the allegations contained in the Reuters report which has generated concerns," the NHRC said in a post on X. Reuters reported in December 2022, based on dozens of witness accounts and documentation, that the military abortion programme involved terminating at least 10,000 pregnancies among women and girls, many of whom had been kidnapped and raped by Islamist militants.