Nigerian military executed 1,200, says Amnesty International

A soldier on May 11, 2014 directs a military truck through a bridge at Ngala connecting northeastern Nigeria and Cameroon that was destroyed by suspected Boko Haram insurgents during an attack on May 5, 2014. PHOTO | AFP 

In Summary

• Report accuses military officials of commanding soldiers to carry out war crimes.
• Five senior commanders named in the report.

By AGGREY MUTAMBO
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The Nigerian military has been accused of committing war crimes.

In its latest report, Amnesty International says the Nigerian military, in its fight against Boko Haram, has "extra-judicially executed more than 1,200 people" and detained and tortured thousands.

The report names five senior military officials whom it accuses of commanding soldiers to disappear, torture or kill thousands who were caught up in operations against Boko Haram.

Titled Stars on Their Shoulders, Blood on Their Hands, the report concludes that the incidents recorded from 2013 "constitute war crimes for which military commanders bear both individual and command responsibility, and may amount to crimes against humanity".

Amnesty International called for an investigation by the International Criminal Court.

President Muhammadu Buhari issued a statement on Wednesday evening promising to "look into" the allegations raised by the report.

According to Amnesty International, many of these atrocities occurred in Nigeria's northeastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, an area where Boko Haram has also committed serious crimes.

Five senior military officers, including two Chiefs of Army Staff and two Chiefs of Defence Staff, who were tasked with overseeing operations against Boko Haram, have been named as bearing the greatest responsibility for the atrocities.

Amnesty International has documented 27 incidents it says show the Nigerian army was involved in extrajudicial killings. In some cases, the soldiers worked with civilians appointed to help combat Boko Haram to execute a large number of people between 2013 and 2014.

"At least 1,200 men and boys, almost certainly many more, were killed in these incidents," the report says.

KILLED IN DETENTION

In one incident in March 2014, soldiers reacting to a Boko Haram attack on a military base are said to have killed about 640 men and boys who had been in detention in Borno.

In another incident, Amnesty International says, 64 people, suspected to be terrorists, were executed while in detention at a facility in Damaturu in Yobe. Another 185 were killed the same way in 2013 in a mop-up operation in Yobe.

"The precise number of extrajudicial executions is impossible to verify due to the lack of records, cover-up efforts by the military, and the difficulty of reaching witnesses in the areas where the crimes were committed," the report says.

Security agencies covered up the killings by disposing of bodies in secret, dropping them off by roadsides or near their homes, according to more than 412 witnesses interviewed by Amnesty International.

The report is a compilation of interviews with survivors, their relatives, eyewitnesses, human rights activists, medics, journalists and lawyers as well as military sources. Amnesty International also says it reviewed military correspondence at the time.

Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria have increased in severity since 2009, when the insurgents waged violence on government installations.

Originally opposed to western education, the group has since ridden on Islamic radicalism, social marginalisation and sub-regional factors to mete violence on civilians. It has killed at least 17,000, according to Amnesty International, and abducted about 2,000 girls.

Last year, international support against the group rose after militants abducted 276 girls from their school in Chibok, Borno State, on April 14, 2014.

Now Amnesty International insists such support should be cut off.