Yemi Obafemi
Amnesty International has accused the Nigerian government of turning a blind eye to widespread human rights abuses in the country’s South-East region, calling for urgent action to end what it described as a “free-for-all reign of impunity.”
In a new report titled “A Decade of Impunity: Attacks and Unlawful Killings in Southeast Nigeria,” the organisation said both state and non-state actors have committed serious violations , including unlawful killings, torture, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, and destruction of property, between January 2021 and December 2024.
The report, based on over 100 interviews with survivors, victims’ families, civil society members, lawyers, and traditional and religious leaders, also draws on research missions to Owerri (Imo State), Asaba (Delta State), Obosi (Anambra State), and Enugu (Enugu State) between April and November 2023.
Amnesty International Nigeria’s Director, Isa Sanusi, said the federal government’s failure to address the crisis had left communities vulnerable to attacks from armed groups, criminal gangs, vigilantes, and state-backed forces.
The group estimates that at least 1,844 people were killed in the region between January 2021 and June 2023. In Imo State alone, gunmen killed over 400 people between January 2019 and December 2021.
The statement read in part:”Gunmen killed over 400 people in Imo state between January 2019 and December 2021, often emerging from their camps unmasked to carry out attacks on residents, police stations, and vigilante offices. The raids have triggered reprisal attacks resulting in death and injury for thousands of residents.
“Nigerian authorities continue to blame the pro-Biafran organization IPOB (Indigenous People of Biafra) and its militant arm, the Eastern Security Network (ESN) for most of the deadly attacks in the region. IPOB/ESN deny involvement in the activities of the “unknown gunmen” and their camps.”
Gunmen have turned some communities into “ungoverned spaces,” by sacking traditional rulers, displacing residents, and taking total control of communities, including Agwa and Izombe in the Oguta Local Government Area (LGA) of Imo state and Lilu in Ihiala LGA of Anambra State.”
The report also accused the state-backed Ebube Agu paramilitary force, created in April 2021, of using intimidation, arbitrary arrests, torture, and extrajudicial killings against perceived opponents. Nigerian security forces were also implicated in similar abuses during military operations in the region.
Amnesty International warned that the lack of justice for victims is fuelling ongoing violence and fear.
“No one knows exactly how many have been killed since 2015. Many remain missing or forcibly disappeared. The government must uphold its constitutional and international human rights obligations, protect lives and property, and ensure accountability for all perpetrators, regardless of who they are,” Sanusi added.
The organisation called for independent and transparent investigations into all alleged violations by both state and non-state actors, as well as adequate reparations for victims.
