- Says civilians are worst hit
Amnesty International, AI has said that Nigerian security agencies and Boko Haram insurgents have committed war crimes in North-East Nigeria, revealing that more than 1,500 people had been killed in the first three months of 2014.
In a statement released yesterday, AI said that the situation in the North-East of the country had escalated into a non-international armed conflict (civil war).
AI said it had documented the killings carried out in January, February and March 2014 by both Boko Haram and the Nigerian Security Forces.
The statement reads: “Amnesty International documents pattern of killings by Boko Haram and extra-judicial (summary) executions by Nigerian security forces.
“An increase in attacks by Boko Haram and uncontrolled reprisals by Nigeria’s security forces has seen the death toll in North East Nigeria rise to at least 1,500 people, more than half of whom are civilians, in the first three months of 2014”.
Research and Advocacy Director for Africa at Amnesty International, Netsanet Belay, urged the international community to ensure prompt, independent investigations into acts that might constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
AI called on the international community to stop looking the other side in the face of extrajudicial executions, attacks on civilians and other crimes under international law being committed on a mass scale.
Amnesty said civilians had paid heavy price as the cycle of violations and reprisals gathered momentum.
“Amnesty International has received credible evidence that as the military regained control, more than 600 people, mostly unarmed recaptured detainees, were extra-judicially executed in various locations across Maiduguri”, the statement said.
Amnesty said it had pieced together a partial timeline of events following the 14 March attack in Maiduguri. The evidence is based on interviews with residents, lawyers, human rights campaigners, and hospital staff across the city as well as satellite imagery showing three possible mass graves in one area of Maiduguri.
Amnesty said it had collected testimony of voices of witnesses who described what happened when the military found 56 of those who had escaped from the Giwa barracks.
It quoted one of the testimonies thus: “The former detainees were in a classroom. They started screaming ‘we are not Boko Haram. We are detainees!’ My neighbours and I saw the soldiers take the men to a place called ‘no man’s land,’ behind the University of Maiduguri. We watched as the soldiers opened fire killing all 56. They were killed in front of us. All of them”, amongst others.
The post Security agencies, Boko Haram have killed 1500 – Amnesty Int’l appeared first on Nigeria pilot.
