By Perpetua Onuegbu
Global Rights, a civil society organisation has decried the incessant sexual harassment and intimidation of women and girls in Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps across the country.
Mr Jason, the Media Representative, Global Rights made this known in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said currently over 3 million persons are displace in the country adding that sexual violence and the hidden agony had become the lot the women and children in this camps.
“Nigeria is currently home to over 3 million internally displaced persons – families, and individuals forced to flee their homes by insurgency, armed conflict, banditry, and climate-induced devastation.
“From Adamawa to Zamfara to the outskirts of Abuja, makeshift camps have emerged as temporary shelters for the displaced.
“These spaces were meant to offer protection, but for thousands of women and girls, they have become places of deep and lasting harm, not sites of safety, but of sustained sexual violence.
“Behind the walls and tents, the crisis is quiet but devastating. Women and girls, already stripped of their homes and livelihoods, now find themselves vulnerable to daily exploitation.
He said access to food, clean water, medicine, or a place to sleep was often conditioned on sex.
“The perpetrators are rarely strangers. Usually, they are those entrusted with the survivors’ care. These include camp officials, security agents, aid workers, or even fellow displaced persons.
“Here, power is traded for safety, and silence is traded for survival.This is not just about isolated instances of abuse.
“What is unfolding in Nigeria’s IDP camps is a widespread, systemic failure, one that has normalized coercion and buried the cries of survivors beneath layers of fear, shame, and neglect.
“Girls are being raped while fetching water. Pregnant women are assaulted by partners and left to manage the trauma alone.”
He stressed that many never speak out, afraid of being stigmatised, cut off from justice, and dependent on their abusers for basic needs.
Jason said sexual violence in the camps were pervasive, underreported, and often met with impunity.
“In April 2025, during Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Global Rights conducted fieldwork in 10 IDP camps across Borno, Adamawa, Yobe, and the FCT, engaging with survivors, community members, and frontline workers.
“The findings reveal a disturbing truth: where displacement meets abandonment, sexual violence thrives.
“This report is a call to attention, a call to accountability, and most of all, a call to care because what is happening in these camps is not just a humanitarian crisis; it is a human rights failure.
“Displacement should never mean danger, and every woman and girl deserves a better and safer environment.”(NAN)