Human Rights Abuses In Nigeria: Indigenous People of Biafra Chronicle Injustices in Letter to United Nations

WASHINGTON, March 25, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) submitted materials today chronicling human rights abuses perpetrated against Biafrans in Nigeria to Agnes Callamard, Special Rapporteur for Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions at the United Nations. The information will be reviewed by Special Rapporteur Callamard for possible inclusion in a report on Nigeria, which is expected to be released later this year. Ms. Callamard visited Nigeria in 2019 to investigate reports of violence and injustice against innocent Nigerians.

The Indigenous People of Biafra is an organization that represents the social, political, and economic interests of Biafrans in Nigeria. The group aims to ensure that the human rights violations occurring across Nigeria will be acknowledged and confronted, perpetrators will be prosecuted, and religious minorities across Nigeria will be protected by the international community. The letter was signed by IPOB leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB United States National Coordinator Dr. Clement Okoro, and 22 state coordinators from across the United States.

The submission to the UN further documents 12 incidents in which Biafrans were subject to severe human rights abuses, ranging from indiscriminate arrests to mass executions, carried out by Nigerian military, police and security forces. Most notable amongst these atrocities is the killing by Nigerian military forces of up to 150 Biafrans in May 2016. These innocent civilians were celebrating Biafran Remembrance Day and commemorating the approximately two million Biafrans that lost their lives during the Nigerian Civil War of the 1960's.

"The number of human rights abuses being committed against minorities and those with dissenting views in Nigeria, including members of the IPOB, over the past five years have increased dramatically both in scale and heinousness," the letter states. "These crimes, committed by state and non-state actors alike, are at best ignored by the Buhari regime and at worst sanctioned by the administration. Instances of mass murders and other horrific acts of violence are rarely investigated, and perpetrators are not prosecuted. Even where violence has been demonstrated to have been led by state security actors, no mechanism exists to hold those responsible accountable."

The letter also calls Special Rapporteur Callamard's attention to the massacre of Christians by Fulani extremists – a group that the 2019 Global Terrorism Index estimates is deadlier than Boko Haram. This growing problem was also highlighted in a recent op-ed by Bernard-Henri Lévy, a French philosopher and author.

Speaking of his recent trip to Nigeria, Lévy specifically noted the Nigerian military's refusal to confront Fulani extremists, "Several times I note the proximity of a military base that might have been expected to protect civilians. But the soldiers didn't come; or, if they did, it was only after the battle; or they claimed not to have received the texted SOS calls in time, or not to have had orders to respond, or to have been delayed on an impassable road."

Lévy also warned about the future in Nigeria, "Some professional disinformers will try to reduce the violence here to one of the "interethnic wars" that inflame Africa. They'll likely find, here and there, acts of reprisal against the Fula and Hausa. But as my trip concludes, I have the terrible feeling of being carried back to Rwanda in the 1990s, to Darfur and South Sudan in the 2000s. Will the West let history repeat itself in Nigeria? Will we wait, as usual, until the disaster is done before taking notice? Will we stand by as international Islamic extremism opens a new front across this vast land, where the children of Abraham have coexisted for so long?"

ABOUT THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF BIAFRA

The Indigenous People of Biafra is an organization that represents the social, political, and economic interests of Biafrans in Nigeria. The group aims to ensure that the human rights violations occurring across Nigeria will be acknowledged and confronted, perpetrators will be prosecuted, and religious minorities across Nigeria will be protected by the international community. The letter was signed by IPOB leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB United States National Coordinator Dr. Clement Okoro, and 22 state coordinators from across the United States.

DISSEMINATED BY MERCURY PUBLIC AFFAIRS, LLC, A REGISTERED FOREIGN AGENT, ON BEHALF OF NNAMDI KANU – LEADER OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF BIAFRA. MORE INFORMATION IS ON FILE WITH THE DEPT. OF JUSTICE, WASHINGTON, DC.

SOURCE The Indigenous People of Biafra