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According to a latest report by Amnesty International, at least 1,844 people were killed in the South-East between January 2021 and June 2023.
In the report, ‘A Decade of Impunity: Attacks and Unlawful Killings in South-East Nigeria’, which accuses both state and non-state actors of widespread killings and human rights abuses in the region, the rights organisation added that the death toll still rises.
It said, “The Nigerian authorities’ persistent failure to address the security crisis in the country’s South-East region has created a free-for-all reign of impunity in which numerous state and non-state actors have committed serious human rights violations and killed at least 1,844 people between January 2021 and June 2023,”
Amnesty International explained that security personnel, traditional rulers, political figures, farmers, students, and commuters were also among the victims caught in the violent attacks.
The rights group documented unlawful killings, torture and other ill-treatment, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and displacement at the hands of rampaging gunmen, state-backed paramilitary outfits, vigilantes, criminal gangs and cults in the region between January 2021 and December 2024.
“The Nigerian authorities’ brutal clampdown on pro-Biafra protests from August 2015 plunged the South-East region into an endless cycle of bloodshed, which has created a climate of fear and left many communities vulnerable. Assassinations of prominent personalities and attacks on highways, security personnel, and facilities are chilling reminders of the region’s insecurity,” said Isa Sanusi, head of the organisation in Nigeria.
The report tasked the government to stop turning a blind eye to unlawful killings, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, enforced disappearances, and destruction of properties in the South-East.
It also enjoined the authorities to uphold their constitutional and international human rights obligations, including by ensuring that all suspected perpetrators are brought to justice in fair trials, regardless of their identity, and that victims and their families have access to justice and effective remedies.
The report was based on interviews with 100 people, including survivors, victims’ relatives, civil society members, lawyers, traditional leaders, and religious leaders, explaining that it also conducted research missions to Owerri in Imo, Asaba in Delta, Obosi in Anambra, and Enugu in Enugu between April 2023 and November 2023.
Amnesty demanded that all armed actors in the South-East, from unknown gunmen to security forces, should immediately cease extrajudicial killings, torture, abductions, and the burning of homes.
The group called on the Nigerian authorities to conduct prompt and impartial investigations into all allegations of human rights abuses by both state and non-state actors.
It also demanded the prosecution of perpetrators in fair trials, compensation for victims, and an end to enforced disappearances in the country.
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