Claims that Nigerian army killed protesters

Nigeria’s military has killed at least 150 peaceful protesters in a “chilling campaign” to repress renewed demands to create a breakaway state of Biafra in the southeast, Amnesty International said yesterday.

The military denied any “killing of defenceless agitators”. Security forces have “exercised maximum restraint” in response to violent protesters who in May killed five police officers and wounded several soldiers, said army spokesman Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman. The London-based human rights organisation said an analysis of 87 videos, 122 photographs and testimony from 146 witnesses showed “the military fired live ammunition with little or no warning” into crowds protesting in several cities between August 2015 and August 2016. Hundreds of people have been arbitrarily detained and some tortured, Amnesty said.

Amnesty said it has “evidence of mass extrajudicial executions by security forces,” including 60 people killed at a rally in May.