Nigeria’s multiple security problems have created a crisis that requires
urgent attention and could lead to instability in other African
countries if it is not addressed, a United Nations rapporteur said on
Monday.
Security forces in Africa’s most populous country are trying to tackle a
decade-long Islamist insurgency in the northeast, banditry in the
northwest and bloody clashes between nomadic herdsmen and farming
communities over dwindling arable land in central states.
Agnes Callamard, the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary
or arbitrary executions, said Nigeria was a “pressure cooker of internal
conflict”.
“The overall situation I have found is one of extreme concern,” she told
a news conference in the capital, Abuja, where she presented her
preliminary findings following a 12-day visit to the country.
Callamard said the police and military had shown an excessive use of
lethal force across the West African country which, combined with a lack
of effective investigations and meaningful prosecution, caused a lack of
accountability.
She said the country required changes in the judiciary, police and
military to stop people resorting to violence in the absence of justice.
“The lack of accountability is on such a scale that pretending this is
nothing short of a crisis will be a major mistake. If ignored, its
ripple effect will spread in the sub-region given the country’s
important role in the continent,” she said.
Spokesman for the ministries of justice, military and police did not
respond to a Reuters request for comment on Callamard’s findings.
The Islamist insurgency waged by Boko Haram began in northeast Nigeria
in 2009 but has spread to parts of neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger
where members of the group and militants allied to Islamic State carry
out attacks.
The rapporteur also condemned what she said was the “arbitrary
deprivation of life” and the excessive use of lethal force in the case
of processions held by banned Shi’ite Muslim group the Islamic Movement
in Nigeria.
Callamard said the move to ban the group appeared be based on what the
authorities thought IMN could become rather than its actions. She said
she had not been presented with any evidence to suggest the group was
weaponized and posed a threat to the country.