1,844 killed in South-East in 30 months — Amnesty International

One thousand eight hundred and forty-four people were allegedly killed in Nigeria’s South-Eastern region between January 2021 and June 2023, according to a new report by Amnesty International Nigeria.

The report, titled “A decade of Impunity: Attacks and unlawful Killings in South East Nigeria,” was officially launched in Lagos on Thursday.

According to Isa Sanusi, the Director of Amnesty International Nigeria, the report is a follow-up to a 2015 report on violence in the region and focuses solely on human rights abuses and killings.

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Sanusi claimed that “Gunmen killed over four hundred people in Imo State between 2019 and 2021” and that “hundreds of people were arbitrarily detained and forcibly disappeared.”

The human rights organization stated that the “persistent failure of the government 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…between January 2021 and June 2023.”

The report documents unlawful killings, torture, enforced disappearances, and arbitrary arrests carried out by “rampaging gunmen, state-backed paramilitary outfits, vigilante, criminal gangs and cult groups.”

Sanusi alleged that; “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.”

He added that the “assassination of prominent personalities and attacks on highways, security personnel and facilities are chilling reminders of the region’s insecurity.”

The pervasive insecurity has had a significant impact on the daily lives of residents.

According to Amnesty International Nigeria, the violence has affected people’s rights, including “the rights to life, physical integrity, security, liberty including freedom of movement.” The report noted that “many people have not travel[ed] to their hometown for several years for fear of attacks or abduction” and that traditional ceremonies are now often held outside the region.

Sanusi stressed that “no one knows exactly the number of people killed in the South East since 2015” and that “the number of high profile killings and the consistent fear of possible attacks, anywhere and anytime, show how badly the authorities are failing to protect lives and properties and ensure law and order.”

Amnesty International has urged the government to act decisively. Sanusi advised that; “The government must stop turning a blind eye to the unlawful killing, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture enforced disappearances and and destruction of properties in the South East.”

He concluded that “authorities must live up to their constitutional and international human rights obligation, including by ensuring that all suspected perpetrators are brought to justice in fair trials, no matter, who they are and that victims and their families have access to justice and effective remedies.”

The report, according to Sanusi, provides authorities with “adequate leads to open an investigation, that will end the impunity and provide the victim with justice.“