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Insecurity: 10, 000 Died In Nigerian Military Custody — Amnesty Int’l Alleges

According to Amnesty International, at least 10,000 people have perished in the Nigerian Army’s custody since the Boko Haram battle began in the northeast.

Isa Sanusi, the organisation’s Country Director, revealed this at a conference in Maiduguri, accusing Boko Haram and the military of several violations.

According to him, military soldiers broke the rules of engagement while carrying out their missions in the region.

He regretted that the military denied its personnel’s involvement in atrocities despite being served with Amnesty’s report before it was made public.

Sanusi claimed that the human rights organization had previously filed a lawsuit with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague on alleged crimes against humanity in the northeast.

He also unveiled a 144-page report, titled “Help Us Build Our Lives,” Girls Survivors of Boko Haram and Military Abuses in North-east Nigeria,”

“Attacks on schools, teachers and students, including their abduction, have been committed so as to prevent people, especially children, from receiving what Boko Haram considers a ‘Western’ education.

Boko Haram is generally translated from Hausa as ‘Western education is forbidden. Boko Haram has committed war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian law, including murder; attacks on civilians and civilian objects; indiscriminate attacks; disproportionate attacks; torture; cruel treatment; conscription (including through abductions) and use of child soldiers under the age of 15; attacks on buildings dedicated to education,” the report said.

“Consequently, in a series of reports since 2015, Amnesty International has concluded that Boko Haram members should also be investigated for the crimes against humanity of murder; enslavement; imprisonment; torture; rape; sexual slavery; sexual violence; persecution; and forced marriage as “other inhumane acts,” the report said.

According to the report, in response to the military atrocities in its operations against the armed group (Boko Haram) “the Nigerian military has often treated anyone in, or coming out of Boko Haram-controlled areas as, at minimum, a suspected Boko Haram member

“Amnesty International has documented war crimes by government forces, including intentional attacks against the civilian population; indiscriminate attacks that have killed or injured civilians; extrajudicial executions, which also constitute the war crime of murder; torture; cruel treatment; rape; and sexual violence.

Furthermore, Amnesty International believes that individuals in the Nigerian military may have committed crimes against humanity such as murder, extermination, imprisonment, torture, rape, enforced disappearance, and gender-based persecution, after concluding in a 2015 report that the Nigerian military likely had a policy of attacking civilians and did so on a widespread and systematic scale.

“At least 10,000 people have died in military custody since the conflict in north-east Nigeria began.”

The report, however, acknowledged that Nigerian authorities had made advances in recent years, including considerably less frequent arbitrary arrest of anyone, particularly women and children, suspected of being linked with Boko Haram.

The humanitarian agency also discovered that the Nigerian government failed to investigate and prosecute suspects of international crimes. “For the last decade, Boko Haram has devastated the lives of people across north-east Nigeria, treating anyone in government-controlled areas as the ‘enemy’, often making no effort to distinguish civilians from Nigerian forces,” continued the report.

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