Amnesty: Nigerian Security Making Insurgency Worse
November 01, 2012
by VOA News
Rights group Amnesty International says actions taken by Nigeria's security forces to combat the Islamist militant group Boko Haram are making the situation worse.
In a new report released Thursday, Amnesty says security forces have committed rights violations, including arbitrary detentions, torture and extra-judicial killings.
The group says that, combined with atrocities carried out by Boko Haram, the actions of the security forces create a cycle of violence and an "increasing climate of fear" in Nigeria.
Salil Shetty, Amnesty's secretary general, called for the Nigerian government to protect the country's population from Boko Haram, but to act within the rule of law.
Nigeria's Joint Task Force denies reports that soldiers killed at least 30 people and burned shops and houses in Maiduguri last month, in revenge for a bomb attack. In a statement at the time, the JTF says that there was "no recorded case of extra-judicial killings, torture, arson and arbitrary arrests by the JTF in Borno state."
Boko Haram is based in Maiduguri, capital of the country's northeastern Borno state. Much about the group remains unclear, but the militants are believed to want to impose a strict form of Islamic law across northern Nigeria. The group is blamed for killing more than 1,000 people in northern and central Nigeria since 2010.
New York-based Human Rights Watch issued a report last month that also accused Nigerian security of engaging in abuses while battling Boko Haram.
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