As a Nigerian human rights commission holds hearings on reports of a mass, army-run forced abortion program in the country's war-torn northeast, two more women have said that they underwent abortions in military custody without their consent.
The accounts of the two women, who said they met by chance at a wedding outside Nigeria, buttress the testimonies of more than 30 other women and girls who said they endured forced abortions during the government's nearly 14-year war against Islamist insurgents. Their stories also align with accounts of soldiers and health workers involved in the clandestine army scheme. A Reuters report revealed in December that at least 10,000 pregnancies had been terminated among women and girls impregnated by Islamist insurgents since 2013.
Binta Yau and Rabi Ali, the two women who were interviewed most recently, said they met about a year ago and soon discovered they had a painful experience in common: Both had been captured and impregnated by Islamist insurgents. And both lost their pregnancies after they were taken into custody by Nigerian soldiers and given unidentified pills and injections.