The continued captivity of Leah Sharibu and the unresolved cases of the remaining Chibok schoolgirls highlight a wider pattern of sexual and gender-based violence affecting women and girls in conflict-affected regions of Nigeria. While these particular cases have attracted international attention, they are not isolated incidents. Rather, they form part of a broader context in which abduction, subjugation, sexual violence, forced marriage, coercion and psychological abuse are used by terrorist factions and other armed non-state actors to humiliate communities and exert control over vulnerable populations.
In northern and central Nigeria women and girls abducted during attacks on schools, villages, places of worship and farming communities are particularly vulnerable to rape, forced marriage, forced labour, forced pregnancy and religious coercion. Sexual violence is often accompanied by physical violence, psychological torture, threats of execution and efforts to strip victims of their dignity and agency. Such abuses occur within a wider environment of insecurity, displacement and limited access to justice.
The situation in Southern Kaduna illustrates the aspects of CRSV articulated by the UN. The region has experienced largescale attacks, mass killings, kidnappings, forced displacement and land occupation by armed non-state actors of Fulani extraction since 2011, which increased exponentially during the administration of former governor Nasir el Rufai (2015-2023).
Alongside the killings, abductions, destruction of livelihoods and forced displacement, an unknown number of women and girls have been subjected to severe forms of sexual violence while in captivity in a significantly underreported conflict in which thousands may have suffered repeated rape and other forms of sexual abuse while in captivity. Many survivors remain reluctant to speak openly about their experiences due to stigma, fear and deep but unwarranted feelings of shame.