By Nchetachi Chukwuajah
Amnesty International Nigeria has said the Federal Government’s clampdown on pro-Biafra protests from August 2015 triggered a series of killings and human rights violations between January 2021 and June 2023 in the South East region of Nigeria.
In a report entitled, ‘A Decade of Impunity: Attacks and Unlawful Killings in Southeast Nigeria,’ released on Monday, October 6, and shared on its verified X handle, it said 1,844 people were
killed in the region by state and non-state actors.
The human rights organisation also disclosed that hundreds of people were arbitrarily detained and forcibly disappeared during the period, while gunmen killed over 400 people in Imo State between 2019 and 2021.
Amnesty International said the report documents 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 South-East region between January 2021 and December 2024.
Isa Sanusi, the Director of Amnesty International Nigeria, said, “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.”
Sanusi further called on the Nigerian government to fulfill its constitutional obligation of ensuring the safety of lives and property, urging it to ensure that justice is served and perpetrators
are brought to book.
He said, “The government must stop turning a blind eye to the unlawful killings, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, enforced disappearances, and destruction of properties in the South-East region.
“Authorities must live up to their constitutional and international human rights obligations, including by ensuring all suspected perpetrators are brought to justice in fair trial, no matter who they are, and that victims and their families have access to justice and effective remedies.”
The human rights organisation also documented how over 400 people were killed in Imo State between January 2019 and December 2021 by “unknown gunmen,” who often emerge from their
camps unmasked to carry out attacks on residents, police stations, and vigilante offices.
It said the raids have triggered reprisal attacks, resulting in death, injury, and destruction of thousands of lives and property in the state.
Amnesty International further highlighted the impact of the enforcement of a sit-at-home order issued on August 9, 2021, by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its militant arm, the Eastern Security Network (ESN), across the South-East region.
The order, it said, has led to human rights violations with people beaten or even killed for defying it. At the same time, schools have been shut, exams disrupted, markets closed with harsh
economic consequences for communities across Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states.
Amnesty International stated further that the situation has led to a “climate of fear and disruption to daily life, “even as justice and adequate reparations have eluded victims of the violence despite the scale of the violations.
“No one knows exactly the number of people killed in the southeast since August 2015. Many people have been declared missing or forcibly disappeared.
“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 property and ensure law and order. Impunity for these human rights crimes continues to have a chilling effect on the
enjoyment of other human rights.
“The Nigerian authorities must uphold their constitutional and international human rights obligations by guaranteeing, protecting and ensuring the rights to life, physical integrity, and
liberty, security and safety of the people and stemming the tide of rampant insecurity in the South-East region.
“Authorities must undertake prompt, thorough, independent, impartial, transparent and effective
investigations into all allegations of violations and abuses committed by state and non-state actors in the region,” Sanusi added.
According to Amnesty International, the report is based on interviews with 100 people, including survivors, victims’ relatives, civil society members, lawyers, traditional leaders, and religious leaders.
The organisation added that it also conducted research missions to Owerri in Imo State, Asaba in Delta State, Obosi in Anambra State, and Enugu in Enugu State between April 2023 and November 2023.
