The UN rights chief on Friday
denounced rights abuses by both Boko Haram Islamists and the Nigerian military
and asked the country’s new president to punish offenders.
“Civilians in northeast Nigeria have
been living through horrifying acts of cruelty and violence by Boko Haram.
These include wanton killings, summary executions, forced participation in
military operations –- including the use of children to detonate bombs, forced
labour, forced marriage and sexual violence, including rape,” Zeid Ra’ad Al
Hussein said.
But there were equally alarming
reports of flagrant violations by the Nigerian military in its crackdown
against the group, he said, calling on President Muhammadu Buhari “to take
urgent measures to bring to justice perpetrators of human rights violations and
abuses, whether non-State or State actors.”
The new Nigerian leader, who took
office last week, has made the fight against Boko Haram a priority, vowing to
rid his country of “the terror” of the Islamist fighters.
Zeid said there were witness accounts
of how Boko Haram amputated the hands of children suspected of theft, gathered
villagers ostensibly on the pretext of staging a mass sermon and then mowed
them down with bullets, and stoned to death a man “on accusations of
fornication.”
On the government side, there were
reports of people being detained for up to five days without food or water for
suspected Boko Haram links.
“We have continued to receive
reports of arbitrary arrests and detention, torture and summary executions as
well as of a failure to ensure the protection of civilians during
counter-insurgency operations,” he said.
Zeid also called for a probe into
“deeply disturbing allegations that thousands of people have died or have been
killed while being held in detention in state institutions.”
“This is crucial to ensure that the
victims of Boko Haram crimes are not doubly victimised by their own
government,” he said.
Boko Haram’s insurgency has killed
at least 15,000 people since 2009 and has now spilled over to countries
neighbouring Nigeria.
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