(Abuja, October 11, 2012) – Widespread and systematic murder and
persecution by Boko Haram, a militant Islamist group in northern
Nigeria, likely amount to crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch
said in a report released today. Government security forces have also
engaged in numerous abuses, including extrajudicial killings, Human
Rights Watch said.
The 98-page report, “Spiraling Violence: Boko Haram Attacks and
Security Force Abuses in Nigeria,” catalogues atrocities for which Boko
Haram has claimed responsibility. It also explores the role of Nigeria’s
security forces, whose own alleged abuses contravene international
human rights law and might also constitute crimes against humanity. The
violence, which first erupted in 2009, has claimed more than 2,800
lives.
“The unlawful killing by both Boko Haram and Nigerian security
forces only grows worse; both sides need to halt this downward spiral,”
said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Nigeria’s
government should swiftly bring to justice the Boko Haram members and
security agents who have committed these serious crimes.”
The report, which includes a photo essay, is based on field research
in Nigeria between July 2010 and July 2012, and the continuous
monitoring of media reports of Boko Haram attacks and statements since
2009. Human Rights Watch researchers interviewed 135 people, including
91 witnesses and victims of Boko Haram violence or security forces
abuses, as well as lawyers, civil society leaders, government officials,
and senior military and police personnel.
Since 2009, hundreds of attacks by suspected Boko Haram members have
left more than 1,500 people dead, according to media reports monitored
by Human Rights Watch. In the first nine months of 2012 alone, more than
815 people died in some 275 suspected attacks by the group – more than
in all of 2010 and 2011 combined.
Boko Haram, which means “Western education is a sin” in the Hausa
language of northern Nigeria, seeks to impose a strict form of Sharia,
or Islamic law, in northern Nigeria and end government corruption.
Widespread poverty, corruption, police abuse, and longstanding impunity
for a range of crimes have created a fertile ground for violent
militancy in Nigeria, Human Rights Watch said.
Boko Haram’s attacks – centered in northern Nigeria – have primarily
targeted police and other government security agents, Christians, and
Muslims working for or accused of cooperating with the government. The
group has also bombed newspaper offices and the United Nations building
in the capital, Abuja; attacked beer halls and robbed banks; and burned
down schools.
Five days of clashes between the group and security forces, and
brazen execution-style killings by both sides, left more than 800 people
dead in July 2009 and precipitated further violence. Security personnel
in 2009 arrested and summarily executed the group’s leader, Mohammed
Yusuf, along with at least several dozen of his followers, in the
northern city of Maiduguri.
When the group reemerged in 2010 under the leadership of Abubakar
Shekau, Yusuf’s former deputy, it vowed to avenge the killings of its
members. Suspected Boko Haram members have since attacked more than 60
police stations in at least 10 northern and central states and bombed
the police headquarters in Abuja. According to media reports monitored
by Human Rights Watch, at least 211 police officers have been killed in
these attacks.
A widow of a police officer killed by Boko Haram said that members
of the group attacked a police barracks in the city of Kano in January
2012 while disguised in police uniforms:
I was standing in the doorway…. I saw five men in mobile police
uniforms. They had AK-47s. They didn’t say anything. One of them shot me
in the leg and I fell inside the house. My husband, he was in uniform,
came out and saw them. He had no gun. He asked, “Colleagues, why did you
shoot my wife?” And then they shot him, bang in the forehead. He fell
down [dead].
Police took the woman to the hospital the next morning where doctors amputated her right leg above the knee.
Boko Haram has also claimed responsibility for targeting and killing
numerous Christians in northern Nigeria. Suspected members of the group
have bombed or opened fire on worshipers in at least 18 churches across
eight northern and central states since 2010. In Maiduguri, the group
also forced Christian men to convert to Islam on penalty of death, Human
Rights Watch found.
Suspected Boko Haram gunmen, often riding motorcycles and carrying
AK-47s under their robes, have also gunned down more than a dozen Muslim
clerics and assassinated traditional leaders for allegedly speaking out
against its tactics or for cooperating with authorities to identify
group members. The group also has claimed responsibility for killing
northern politicians and civil servants – nearly all Muslims.
“Boko Haram has callously murdered people while they pray at church
services in northern Nigeria,” Bekele said. “It has also gunned down
Muslims who openly oppose the group’s horrific violence.”
Nigeria’s government has responded to Boko Haram with a heavy hand.
Security forces have killed hundreds of Boko Haram suspects and other
members of the public with no apparent links to the group, in the name
of ending the group’s threat to the country’s citizens. But the
authorities have rarely prosecuted those responsible for the Boko Haram
violence or security force personnel for their abuses.
During security raids in communities where attacks have occurred,
the military have allegedly engaged in excessive use of force and other
human rights violations, such as burning homes, physical abuse, and
extrajudicial killings, witnesses told Human Rights Watch.
The Nigerian authorities have also arrested hundreds of people in
raids across the north. Many of these people have been held
incommunicado without charge or trial for months or even years. In some
cases they have been detained in inhuman conditions and subject to
physical abuse or death. The fate of many of those detained remains
unclear.
Boko Haram should immediately cease all attacks, and threats of
attacks, that cause loss of life, injury, and destruction of property,
Human Rights Watch said. The Nigerian government should take urgent
measures to address the human rights abuses that have helped fuel the
violent militancy.
“Nigeria’s government has a responsibility to protect its citizens
from violence, but also to respect international human rights law,”
Bekele said. “Instead of abusive tactics that only add to the toll, the
authorities should prosecute without delay those responsible for such
serious crimes.”
“Spiraling Violence: Boko Haram Attacks and Security Force Abuses in Nigeria” is available at:
http://hrw.org/reports/2012/10/11/spiraling-violence-0
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