Amnesty International has said that at least 10,000 people died in military custody since the Boko Haram conflict in the North-East of Nigeria began.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, the Country Director of the human rights organisation, Malam Isa Sanusi, said they were in Maiduguri to remind the government of the need for justice.
Sanusi observed that the war against Boko Haram would soon come to an end, if justice is served on people whose lives had been shattered by Boko Haram and the military.
He said that the organisation had filed a case before the International Court of Justice at Hague over alleged crimes against humanity in the North-East region.
“Amnesty International has documented war crimes by government forces, including intentional attacks against the civilian population; indiscriminate attacks that have killed or injured civilians; extrajudicial executions, which also constitute the war crime of murder; torture; cruel treatment; rape; and sexual violence.
“In addition, Amnesty International believes that individuals in the Nigerian military may have committed the crimes against humanity of murder; extermination; imprisonment; torture; rape; enforced disappearance; and gender-based persecution, after having concluded in a 2015 report that the Nigerian military likely had a policy to attack a civilian population and had done so in a widespread and systematic nature.
“At least 10,000 people have died in military custody since the conflict in North-East Nigeria began,” Amnesty International said in a report documented in response to the military atrocities in its operations in the theatre.
The 144-page report made available to newsmen at the conference also accused Boko Haram of killing thousands of civilians during attacks on towns and villages, and carried out widespread abductions, especially of girls, boys and younger women.
From The INDEPENDENT
