Nigerian military accused of civilian ‘massacres’ in new report

THE TABLET

A Catholic-inspired NGO in Nigerian accused the Nigerian military and vigilante organisations of massacring an estimated 32,300 civilians in the south east of the country over the past nine years.

In a report titled “Nigeria: Ocean of Innocent Blood Flowing in the East”, published on 22 December, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) said the military committed atrocities against civilians under the guise of operations against the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra and its armed wing, the Eastern Security Network.

“Tens of thousands of people were unlawfully detained and tortured, over 6,000 blindfolded or face-bagged and bundled at late night from the east and dumped, un-investigated and un-tried, in secret military locations and prisons in seven northern states,” it said.

The report revealed that thousands were “dumped to die or subjected to kangaroo trials inside Wawa army cantonment in Niger state”, while “300 Igbo communities were raided, 6,000 civilian houses razed, 180,000 displaced, and one million frightened and forced to abandon their homes and flee”.