Nightmare in Nigeria: A war waged on pregnant women and children

SOAS hosts the Pulitzer-finalist Reuters team that revealed the horrific tactics the Nigerian military deployed in its battle against Islamist insurgencies: a secret mass abortion programme for women and girls impregnated by Boko Haram fighters, and the targeted killing of children believed to be the offspring or allies of the militants.

In December 2022, a Reuters investigation revealed a hidden campaign by Nigeria’s Army to conduct thousands of forced abortions on women who had been kidnapped and impregnated by Boko Haram and Islamic State fighters. Days later, Reuters published a second story exposing how the Nigerian Army repeatedly targeted and killed children suspected of being the offspring of extremists, or merely affiliated with the groups.

The series was a Pulitzer Finalist for International Reporting in 2023 and won the Selden Ring Award for International Investigative Reporting, as well as receiving honours from the Overseas Press Club, the Online Journalism Awards and the Foreign Press Association.

The journalists behind the project will delve into how they uncovered the abuses over years of reporting and discuss: the efforts required to keep themselves and their sources safe; interviewing traumatised sources who had kept silent for years; why the Nigerian Army adopted such extreme tactics in its counterinsurgency; and the backlash from its brutal methods. The team will detail how a tip-off led to a full-fledged investigation, hundreds of hours of interviews and open source reporting using satellite images, social media and geolocation.

With Nigeria still investigating Reuters’ findings, the reporters will discuss the implication of the reporting project for Nigeria’s military, and how the U.S., Britain and Europe might engage with a crucial ally in West Africa that has been tainted by serious human rights abuse allegations.

About the speakers

Paul Carsten is a reporter based in London for Reuters. From 2016 to 2022, he covered Nigeria, focusing on politics, security and human rights. Before that, he reported from Beijing on China’s technology sector and censorship.

Reade Levinson is an investigative reporter based in London. She specialises in merging traditional reporting methods with data analysis and open source techniques.

Libby George is a Reuters journalist now based in London who was a senior correspondent and acting bureau chief in Nigeria from 2019-2023. After launching her career as a political journalist in Washington, D.C., she has covered everything from oil to emerging markets.

David Lewis is Africa Special Correspondent for Reuters. He has worked across Africa for over 20 years, starting as a freelancer in Democratic Republic of Congo before regional postings in Dakar and Nairobi. Having focused on organised crime and security issues, he currently leads enterprise reporting in Africa, working with teams on longer-term projects.

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