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'You Don't Fight War With War Crimes': Highlighting Nigerian Military Abuses — Again

A new Amnesty International report details thousands of deaths at the hands of the Nigerian military. The NGO also names nine officials who it says are particularly culpable.
Photo via Amnesty International

Boko Haram may be capturing more headlines, but the spotlight is back on Nigeria's military and the abuses they are accused of committing in their efforts to stamp out the Islamists in the north.

A new investigation by Amnesty International revealed on Wednesday that more than 7,000 young men and boys have died in military detention since March 2011, while at least 1,200 people have been unlawfully killed since February 2012. Amnesty says it interviewed more than 400 Nigerians for the report: including eyewitnesses, victims, and senior members of the military.

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The military's occasionally disorganized and erratic reaction to the Boko Haram threat has led to the arrests of at least 20,000 people, mostly young men and boys, since 2009, with some as young as nine years old. Torture and ill-treatment are common, according to the research, while food, water, and medical treatment are regularly denied to the incarcerated.

The report goes on to name nine officials who they say are particularly culpable and should be independently investigated.

Those identified include Major General John A. H. Ewansiha, Major General Obida T. Ethnan, and Major General Ahmadu Mohammed. Amnesty  has also fingered high-level officials who they claim either knew or should have known about abuses. These include a former and the current chief of army staff — General Azubuike Ihejirika and General Ken Minimah — and a former and the current chief of defense staff — Admiral Ola Sa'ad Ibrahim and Air Chief Marshal Badeh.

Related: Nigerian President Vows to Tackle 'Godless' Boko Haram in Inauguration Ceremony

Amnesty also claims to have obtained a list of 683 detainees who died in custody within a period of four months between October 2012 and February 2013. Furthermore, the group says they have evidence of the mass removal of thousands of corpses from Giwa military barracks, which was used as a detention facility and at one stage allegedly was packed with more than 2,000 detainees.

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"All I know was that once you get detained by the soldiers and taken to Giwa [military barracks], your life is finished," one former detainee told Amnesty.

Another ex-detainee recounted that Nigerian soldiers told him following his detention: "Welcome to your die house. Welcome to your place of death." The man told Amnesty that he believed only 11 of the 122 men he was arrested with survived.

Describing the conditions in another detention center — which was nicknamed "Guantanamo" — one military officer is quoted by Amnesty as saying: "Hundreds have been killed in detention either [by soldiers] shooting them or by suffocation."

Another said that many Boko Haram suspects died as a result of fumigation. "They fumigated with the chemicals you use for killing mosquitoes. It is something very powerful. It is very dangerous."

Footage showed detainees running free from Giwa barracks, Maiduguri, Borno state on 14 March 2014, following an attack by Boko Haram. Photo via Amnesty International

Nigeria has just gone through a democratic presidential transition, from Goodluck Jonathan — a southern Christian regularly criticized for his inaction on the conflict in the north — to former military ruler and northern Muslim Mohammadu Buhari, who won partly because of his promises to finally stamp out the fast-escalating, now multi-national conflict.

In a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, Amnesty stated that they had alerted Buhari's government of the contents of the report before it was released. "You don't fight war crimes with war crimes," a spokesperson reasserted.

In Nigeria, it is often seen as unpatriotic and suspect to question or criticize the country's military — who have regularly publicly attacked the media for reports they see as "biased," influenced by "terrorist sympathizers," or published with the intention of "discrediting" the security forces.

Related: Boko Haram Attacks Maiduguri, Releases Video of Militants Shooting Wounding Nigerian Soldiers

Follow Sally Hayden on Twitter: @sallyhayd