Amnesty International: Nigerian Govt Shielding Military Officials, Boko Haram Members Who Committed Atrocities!

A foremost human rights group, Amnesty International, on Monday called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to urgently investigate the Nigerian government over alleged failures to sanction military commanders and terrorists suspected of grievous human rights abuses in the Boko Haram war, PT reports.

“The Nigerian government is unwilling and unable to meet its obligations as a member of the ICC to investigate and prosecute both Boko Haram and the Nigerian military,” the group said in its reaction to fresh findings published by the ICC that reaffirmed a widespread lack of accountability on the Nigerian government.

The ICC’s office of the prosecutor said in the December 5 report that most of the Boko-Haram-linked cases being pursued by the Nigerian government are related to membership of, support for or failure to report terrorists.

The office of the prosecutor should urgently open “a full investigation into the atrocities that have been committed in northeast Nigeria,” Amnesty International’s Africa director for research and advocacy, Netsanet Belay, said in a statement accompanying the group’s latest report titled: ‘Willingly Unable: ICC Preliminary Examination and Nigeria’s Failure to Address Impunity for International Crimes’.

Mr Belay said since the Nigerian government’s prosecution of Boko Haram has focused only on membership or support for the sect rather than the horrific crimes of key actors in the insurgency, it was obvious that Nigerian authorities have only undertaken superficial criminal proceedings regarding crimes committed by Boko Haram; only a couple of which may be relevant for the conduct that may be covered by one of the potential six cases being reviewed by ICC prosecutors.

“The Nigerian government has no intention to undertake genuine investigations’ Mr. Belay emphasized. “Instead it has pursued ‘sham’ criminal proceedings to ‘shield’ perpetrators from an ICC investigation and to give a ‘veneer’ of accountability in Nigeria.” Read More Here