Amnesty International has documented thousands of cases of what it calls forced disappearances. That is the term it uses for people held in secret detention centers without facing charges or being put on trial. The Nigerian military has repeatedly denied cases of forced disappearance. It began trials last year of more than 2,300 suspected Boko Haram militants. But those trials have been kept in secret. Recently, Human Rights Watch raised concern about the fairness of the trials. Hamsatu Allamin, a local activist, decided to find a way to give a voice to the women who have been separated from their sons and husbands. She decided to create a kind of network or organization; one for wives, and the other for mothers. More than 1,300 people are now active with Allamin’s group. Most live in camps for people displaced within the country. Allamin’s goal is to get Nigerian officials to tell these women where their loved ones are, so she has equipped them with tools to speak out.
