The military in Nigeria has been accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity by the human rights group, Amnesty International.
The rights group on Thursday said that soldiers in Nigeria committed crimes that included torture, rape and killing civilians while fighting the insurgency of Islamist militant group, Boko Haram.
According to Amnesty International, these crimes were committed over a long period of years. The 89-page report was based on several interviews conducted with victims.
A female victim told Amnesty in one of its interviews that “The soldiers, they betrayed us, they said that we should come out of from our villages”.
The woman who fled a village in the Borno state in December 2016 said further that “They said it would be safer and that they would give us a secure place to stay. But when we came, they betrayed us. They detained our husbands and then they raped us women”.
The report also detailed interviews with victims and witnesses who “said that when the military conducted operations in their villages, they burnt down homes and opened fire at remaining residents indiscriminately.”
The Nigerian military has reacted to the report saying in a statement that Amnesty’s report is “a false report on fictitious rape incidents in IDP (internally displaced person) camps in the North East region of Nigeria.”
The Nigerian government has also said that Amnesty’s report lacks credibility.
Millions have been displaced by the activities of Boko Haram, with hundreds killed in the group’s insurgency since 2009. The Nigerian government has struggled to defeat the group.
Source: Africafeeds.com
