OSBC Osun State Broadcasting Corporation
Amnesty International said on Friday that the Nigerian military was deploying illegal tactics, including the forced displacement and detention of villagers as part of its alleged fight against the insurgency in the northeast.
In a report just published, Amnesty International alleged that the Nigerian army burnt down three villages and detained six men from displaced villages at the Maimalari military barracks in Maiduguri for about a month, after which they were released without indictment, thereby violating international humanitarian rights.
Amnesty International Nigeria director Osai Ojigho said: “These brazen acts of shaving entire villages, deliberate destruction of civilian homes and forced displacement of their inhabitants without imperative military motive, should be the subject of an investigation as possible war crimes.
“They repeat a long-standing pattern of brutal Nigerian military tactics against the civilian population. The forces alleged to be responsible for these violations must be immediately suspended and brought to justice. “
Amnesty International has accused the military of deploying illegal tactics, particularly from December 2019, in response to attacks by Boko Haram along the major road between Maiduguri and Damaturu, the capitals of the states of Borno and Yobe.
Amnesty International reported that residents of the villages of Bukarti, Ngariri and Matiri near the Maiduguri-Damaturu road said soldiers arrived on Friday, January 3, 2020 and “went from house to house and to the surrounding farmland, forcing everyone to gather under a tree and by a cemetery. ” after which they were forced to board large trucks and saw them burn their villages.
Amnesty International has said that the displacement of residents of these villages, where their safety or imperative military reasons do not require it, constitutes a war crime, adding that the subsequent burning of their homes could also constitute a crime of war.