Nigerian troops accused of shooting separatists

ABUJA, Nigeria—Nigerian security forces have killed at least 150 pro-Biafran protesters seeking to secede from Nigeria’s southeast, rights group Amnesty International said Thursday.

The report gathered video and eyewitness testimonies between August 2015 and August 2016, which revealed the military’s excessive force and unwarranted use of gunfire to disperse demonstrators.

“This deadly repression of pro-Biafra activists is further stoking tensions in the southeast of Nigeria,” said Makmid Kamara, interim director of Amnesty International Nigeria. “This reckless and trigger-happy approach to crowd control has caused at least 150 deaths, and we fear the actual total might be higher.”

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a group founded in 2012, began demonstrations last August to call for a Biafran state separate from Nigeria. The group claims to have members across more than 80 countries. Tension grew in October when Nigerian authorities arrested the group’s leader, Nnamdi Kanu, on charges of hate speech and criminal conspiracy. He remains in police custody despite a high court ordering his release. Nigerians attempted a similar Biafra secession in 1967, and the move resulted in a three-year civil war that killed more than a million people.

The largest attack on the pro-Biafran activists happened on the Biafra Remembrance Day in Anambra state, Amnesty International said. On May 30, security forces shot and killed an estimated 60 people during a rally. At other gatherings, videos showed the military firing live ammunition without warning at the group’s peaceful gatherings. In some cases, the military also rounded up protesters, killed them, and dumped their bodies afterward, the report revealed.

Vincent Ogbodo, a 26-year-old trader, said he hid in a gutter after security officials shot him during the Remembrance Day rally. When the soldiers found him, they poured acid on him.

“My hands and body started burning,” he said. “They dragged me out of the gutter. They said I’ll die slowly.”

In a statement released yesterday, the Nigerian army denied the allegations and accused Amnesty International of dabbling in issues of national security.

“(The IPOB) modus operandi has continued to relish violence that threatens national security,” Army spokesman Col. Sani Usman said in the statement. “Such reign of hate, terror, and ethno-religious controversies that portend grave consequences for national security have been averted severally through the responsiveness of the Nigerian army and members of security agencies.”

Amnesty said the government has failed to fully investigate the reports despite several promises. The group called on Nigeria’s leaders to follow through with the investigation and make reparation to the victims and their families.