Turning a Blind Eye on Impunity in Nigeria

To go with AFP STORY: Fear pervades Nigerian city at heart of Islamist insurgency by M.J. Smith A female student stands in a but classroom at Maiduguri Experimental School, a private nursery, primary and secondary school but by the Islamist group Boko Haram to keep children away from school in Maiduguri, northeaste Nigeria May 12, 2012. The Nigerian Islamist group known as Boko Haram has grown from a northeaste-focused sect targeting local leaders and police to a many-headed monster capable of deploying suicide bombers to attack the United Nations, police headquarters and one of the country's most prominent newspapers. AFP PHOTO/PIUS UTOMI EKPEI (Photo credit should read PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/GettyImages)

SHAFAQNA – Last week’s aouncement that the US plans to deploy military advisors to assist the Nigerian govement fight Boko Haram and is considering restarting the training of an infantry battalion, despite the lack of investigation by Nigerian authorities in to possible war crimes and possible crimes against humanity by the Nigerian military should raise alarm bells. In the absence of concrete action to investigate possible atrocities the Obama administration risks giving its seal of approval to impunity.

While the armed group Boko Haram still poses a deadly threat to civilians in north-east Nigeria and the region, Amnesty Inteational’s research clearly shows that the Nigerian military has committed mass violations, including crimes under inteational law. The United States must insist on a clear commitment to accountability and to safeguards against future violations before considering this sort of military assistance.

In a report released last year entitled Stars on their Shoulders, Blood on their Hands,Amnesty Inteational documented the deaths of over 7,000 people in the custody of the Nigerian military as a result of starvation, dehydration, disease, overcrowding and suffocation since 2011, some as young as nine years old. The Nigerian military also extra-judicially executed at least 1,200 men and boys between 2012 and 2014. These people were killed after they had been captured and when they presented no danger, in violation of inteational humanitarian law (IHL). One of the most horrific mass extrajudicial executions by the military happened on 14 March 2014 in Maiduguri, Boo state. In the aftermath of a Boko Haram attack on the military detention facility at Giwa barracks during which detainees were released, the military killed at least 640 men and boys, most of them recaptured detainees. No-one has been held accountable for these killings.

Following the launch of Amnesty Inteational’s report, Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, pledged to investigate these crimes. President Buhari also stated that the first task of the Attoey General would be to advise him on investigations.

Nine months later, no action has been taken to begin these investigations.

The failure to investigate or establish accountability is reinforcing a culture of impunity and contributing to ongoing human rights violations by the military. On 12-13 December 2015, the military reportedly killed hundreds of members of the Shi’a Islamic Movement of Nigeria in Zaria, Kaduna state. The group’s leader, Ibraheem Zakzaky, was arrested at his residence and remained in incommunicado detention at the end of the year. Hundreds of others were also arrested. The Kaduna State Govement and the Nigerian Human Rights Commission have both begun investigations into this incident.

All states providing military equipment or training must ensure that all prospective units are stringently vetted to demonstrate that they can act consistently with full respect for inteational human rights and humanitarian law before assistance is agreed. This same principle is also part of US law.

Increasing military assistance to Nigeria in the absence of clear steps towards investigations or implementation of critical human rights safeguards could run the risk of facilitating human rights violations.

Before committing to this path, US policy makers must carefully examine the Nigerian military’s human rights record. Nigeria must protect its people from armed groups like Boko Haram, but it caot do so by letting its military commit mass atrocities with impunity.

Sources – Amnesty Inteational

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