Amnesty asks UK to stop military assistance to Nigeria until Buhari investigates abuses

AMNESTY International has urged British Prime Minister David Cameron to stop providing President Muhammadu Buhari with military assistance until he investigates the human rights abuses carried out by the armed forces in their fight against Boko Haram.

 

On Thursday, President Buhari attended an international anti-terrorist summit to discuss the Syrian crisis in London, where he rubbed minds with Mr Cameron and other world leaders. At the event, Amnesty International challenged President Buhari to stop side-stepping justice and begin investigating war crimes committed by the Nigerian military against civilians.

 

Britain currently provides military assistance to Nigeria in the fight against Boko Haram as over 150 UK troops have been deployed to the country to offer training. Speaking at the Supporting Syria Conference in London, Amnesty International’s UK director, Kate Allen, urged the UK to insist that President Buhari investigates all the alleged war crimes and punishes the perpetuators.

 

Ms Allen said: “The UK must ensure that any assistance it provides to Nigeria is compliant with human rights law and it should not provide military assistance to Nigerian troops accused of committing human rights violations. All proposed training or other security assistance must be very carefully scrutinised and all Nigerian military personnel recommended for training should be vetted to ensure the UK is not complicit in any serious human rights violations.

 

“The UK, under its obligations under the Arms Trade Treaty, must also ensure that a rigorous risk assessment is carried out before weapons, ammunition, or other military technologies are sent to Nigeria and no transfers should take place where there is a clear and substantial risk that they could be used to commit or facilitate atrocities. This is no time for a diplomatic tap-dances around the issues of mass unlawful killings, arbitrary arrest and deaths in detention.”

 

In a June 2015 report titled Stars on their shoulders, blood on their hands, Amnesty International detailed alleged war crimes committed by the Nigerian military. It was particularly scathing about a massacre of prison inmates carried out by the Nigerian Army after Boko Haram attacked a prison in Maiduguri.

 

In a related development, Amnesty International has entered into partnership with civil rights organisation, Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), to protect the rights of Nigerians against torture. Amnesty International said it recognised CDHR’s efforts in the protection of human rights, adding that their collaboration would strengthen its global Stop Torture crusade.