Displaced girls say they don’t want this kind of life and they know it’s dangerous, but they have no choice: ‘We are starving and there’s no food at home.

Starving young girls in the Dikwa Local Government Area of Borno State are selling sex for food.

Known as transactional sex, the girls – most of whom are under 20 and some are as young as 12 or 13 – say they have no other choice.

“We are starving and there’s no food at home.”

International and local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that used to provide food and other essentials to internally displaced persons (IDPs) at the height of the insurgency in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State – from around 2012 to 2016 – have stopped or drastically cut down their assistance.

Unemployment, high inflation and escalating costs, and the ever-decreasing value of the naira are making it virtually impossible for the poor to put food on the table. Even basic foodstuffs are out of reach for most displaced persons living in overcrowded community camps.

It is not only young women and girls who have resorted to this practice – many widows and divorcees also sell their bodies for food.

A teenager, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “We have no choice but to engage in this activity because we have nothing to eat at home. And we are too scared to go into the bushes to collect firewood because of Boko Haram [the Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’way Wa’l-Jihād – JAS]. Selling sex for food is our only means of survival.”

She said when she started there were “only a few of us”.

“But every day more girls and women join us. We do this because we want to survive.”

She said her parents knew what she was doing “but they don’t stop me because we all need food”.

“Our parents are not happy. They don’t want us to do this. But they don’t stop us. We know it’s dangerous, healthwise. And some of the men are harsh. We do what we have to.”

Another teenager said: “We used to collect firewood in the bushes and sell it to people in the IDP camp and the town. But now it is difficult to find wood. There is no more wood in the nearby bushes. If we want wood, we have to go far away. But we are too afraid because we fear we will be attacked.”

A widow, the mother of four children, said: “My kids are starving. Sometimes I roast mango seeds just so that we have something to eat. I am ashamed that I have to sell my body for food. But what can I do?

“Sometimes we go to the town to beg for food, but we often return empty-handed. Some men offer us money or food – and eventually we exchange our bodies for it. There are young girls, unmarried women, widows and divorcees. We all do what we have to, even if we don’t want to.”

The teenager said: “When we went fetch firewood, we are constantly attacked. We started begging, but most days we got nothing. We do not want to exchange our bodies for food or money. But men don’t give food or money for free.”

Fandau Bukar, 42, a woman leader in one of the IDP camps, told RNI that she tried to persuade the girls to stop selling their bodies for food.

“I cannot stop them. They do not listen to me. It is the only way they can get food for their families.

“Initially, there were just a few young girls from the camp doing this. But now single women, widows and divorcees are doing the same. Even women from the host community are exchanging their bodies for food.

“As leaders we caution them against this. We tell them it will just make their problems worse. But it seems like more girls and women are joining the others every day. They don’t even try to hide it. It is truly alarming.”

The head of the camp told RNI that he was not aware of the practice.

“I did not know that this was going on again. In the past it happened. We worked with security operatives to stop it. I will investigate. I will take the necessary steps to stop this.”

Lucy Yunana, an activist for the rights of women and girls, is the executive director of Women in New Nigeria and the New Nigeria Youth Initiative.

She told RNI that she was not surprised to hear women and girls were engaging in transactional sex.

“Women in the north largely depend on their parents and husbands to survive. But many men were killed in the insurgency, which has resulted in a large number of women-led households.

“Most of them are young women with no education or skills. No one expected that the so many women having to fend for themselves.

“In the past, many women in the north did not go to school. They were never taught skills. And here they are today: uneducated, unskilled and alone. Now northern women are forced to give themselves in exchange for food. It’s a tragic situation.

“At the peak of the insurgency there were many international and local NGOs that provided life-saving assistance to affected people, particularly displaced women.

“At that time, they had everything in abundance. But they failed to plan for the future. They did not understand that humanitarian aid is temporary.

“Also, because it was mostly women who were the beneficiaries, men saw them as ‘an asset’. Many women were married off. They did not think that once the humanitarian aid stopped, the men would leave them. They also did not save what little money they had. Everything went to their husbands and children.”

Yunana said this was not the time for blame: “It is time for swift action. These women need to be given the chance to learn skills that will enable them to earn money. They need support to get out of the life they are now living.”

AYSHA MUSTAPHA KOLOMI