50 witnesses told the Panel on Human Rights Violations in Counter-Insurgency Operations in North-East Nigeria that the Nigerian military took part in human rights violations in their counter-attacks against the Boko Haram group.
While the Boko Haram kidnapped and raped women, the Nigerian military aborted and killed the children of the insurgents.
“I don’t see them as children. I see them as Boko Haram. If I get my hands on them, I won’t shoot them, I will slit their throat … I enjoy it,” a soldier told Reuters.
Nigerian military officials deny the allegations.
Reporting from Breitbart:
A human rights adviser to the panel said: So far, we have collected testimonies from over 50 witnesses, including the Nigeria Armed Forces, military, civilians and hospitals of the three states. We are just concluding our hearing in Yola. We are going back to Abuja to continue with our documentation and analysis of evidence that we gathered. The panel includes a retired Nigerian Supreme Court justice, representatives of human rights organizations and the Nigerian bar association, doctors, and retired military officers. Chief of Defense Staff Lucky Irabor nevertheless dismissed the work of the panel as “outright nonsense.” “Their allusion is news to me. It never occurred. I never saw anything like that from Maiduguri down to Maimalamari Cantonment, where I lived – that is a major hospital for our personnel and their family. I am disappointed to say the least. So it is not true,” Irabor said.
