La esclavitud sexual como modus operandi: el caso de Boko Haram

Legal and Politico-Strategic Review Alicia Ginebra Brox Sáenz de la Calzada, “Sexual Slavery as a Modus Operandi: The Case of Boko Haram”, CODESEL Bulletin (Cadre of Defense and Security Law), Vol. 2, No. 7, February 2026 This article offers a rigorous and morally unflinching analysis of sexual slavery as a deliberate strategy of armed conflict, using Boko Haram as a paradigmatic case. Its principal contribution lies in demonstrating that sexual violence is not an incidental by-product of hostilities, but rather a systematic and instrumentalized form of warfare, embedded in the group’s ideology, command structure, and territorial control practices. From a legal perspective, the article is methodologically strong in its reconstruction of Boko Haram’s evolution and its progressive normalization of sexual slavery as an operational tool. The author convincingly situates the group’s practices within the framework of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, emphasizing the absolute prohibition of slavery, sexual violence, and forced marriage as norms of a peremptory character. By grounding the analysis in United Nations reports and Amnesty International documentation, the article establishes a robust evidentiary basis for the legal qualification of these acts. A central doctrinal strength of the article lies in its characterization of sexual slavery as a constitutive element of Boko Haram’s modus operandi. The mass abduction of girls and women—most notably the Chibok schoolgirls—serves multiple strategic functions: the reproduction and cohesion of the armed group, the imposition of religious and social control, the terrorization of civilian populations, and the destruction of communal and familial structures. This multi-layered analysis avoids reductive explanations and instead presents sexual violence as a form of strategic domination, comparable in its effects to ethnic cleansing or forced displacement. The legal qualification advanced in the article is both precise and persuasive. The author correctly identifies sexual slavery, forced marriage, rape, and trafficking as acts capable of constituting war crimes and crimes against humanity, irrespective of the non-state character of the perpetrator. The discussion implicitly reinforces the principle that fragmentation of armed groups does not dilute individual or collective criminal responsibility under international criminal law, a point of particular relevance in contexts involving splinter factions and decentralized command structures. From a politico-strategic standpoint, the article highlights how sexual slavery functions as a weapon of war designed to reshape demographic, cultural, and religious realities in contested territories. By focusing on the lived experiences of survivors, the analysis exposes the long-term strategic consequences of such practices: social stigmatization, intergenerational trauma, breakdown of trust in institutions, and the entrenchment of gender-based insecurity even after the cessation of active hostilities. These effects severely complicate post-conflict stabilization and reconciliation efforts. The article also implicitly addresses the limits of traditional security responses. Military containment of Boko Haram, while necessary, proves insufficient to dismantle the structural role of sexual violence within the conflict. The author’s analysis thus supports a broader understanding of security—one that integrates accountability, survivor-centred justice, and social reconstruction as essential components of conflict resolution. Overall, this contribution stands out as a legally rigorous and strategically insightful study that bridges doctrinal analysis, empirical documentation, and normative evaluation. It reinforces the centrality of sexual slavery within contemporary armed conflicts and underscores the need to treat such practices not as secondary humanitarian concerns, but as core violations shaping the conduct and consequences of war. The article is of particular value for scholars and practitioners working in international humanitarian law, international criminal law, gender and conflict studies, and human security.