Female survivors of abduction in armed conflict zone: psychosocial needs, rehabilitation, and reintegration pathway

The data were collected to examine the involvement of female survivors of abduction from armed conflict zones in their rehabilitation and reintegration after their return.

The aim of this research is to explore the perspective and experiences of returned women from abduction and captivity from armed conflict area in northeast Nigeria regarding the inclusion of their preferences. If their preferences are not included in their rehabilitation, explore a good practice strategy for supporting female survivors from armed conflict zones who have had their voice, freedom and choice taken away from them. The strategy is the creation of a rehabilitation and reintegration model using the women’s voice on how best to facilitate recovery and reintegration after abduction. This model can be used in any armed conflict zones. Currently, there is no pathway for the rehabilitation of returned women and very few studies in this area. This research is important because it does not only draw attention to the invisibility of returned women from captivity in armed conflict zones, it also proffered a rehabilitation pathway for the women.

The participants for this study were recruited with the support of two non-governmental organisations (NGO), House of Hilkiah Foundation in Abuja and Hope And Rural Aid Foundation (HARAF) in. These NGOs were already supporting internally displace women (IDW), they had information on how the IDW were displaced and how they came to live in IDP camps.  

Study One investigated women's lived experiences regarding rehabilitation and reintegration after their return using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) through semi-structed interviews with ten returned women. Data was collected between February and August 2021 from returned women aged between 18 and 70 years living in internally displaced persons' (IDP) camps in Abuja and Yola. Abuja interviews were conducted physically while Yola interviews were virtual.

Study Two explored how the status of the internally displaced persons' camps (designated or host community camps) affected the quality and frequency of support received using Thematic Analysis with semi-structured interviews of seven returned women aged between 18 and 55 years. Data were collected virtually between October and November 2022 from the FCT Abuja and Yola in northeast Nigeria.

Study Three examined the violation of human rights due to issues like displacement, abduction, captivity, physical and sexual abuses, neglect and lack of choice using Qualitative Content Analysis of secondary data. The secondary data were some interviews from Studies One and Two where the violation of the women's rights were talked about by the women.

The findings revealed that returned women were not involved in planning and implementing their rehabilitation. As a result, a step-by-step rehabilitation pathway incorporating the voices of returned women was developed to guide policy makers and professionals with input from returned women explaining how they should be rehabilitated.