Amnesty Report: Nigeria’s Human Rights Abuses Fueling Insurgency

Amnesty International has issued a new report today on the fighting in Nigeria, documenting not only the violence against civilians committed by Boko Haram, but by the Nigerian military, terming them “out of control” in the ongoing war on terror.

It warned that the military’s continued human rights violations are actually fueling the insurgency’s support domestically, in addition to harming large numbers of innocent bystanders, who face summary arrest and torture at the hands of military forces.

“People are living in a climate of fear and insecurity, vulnerable to attack from Boko Haram and facing human rights violations at the hands of the very state security forces which should be protecting them,” the report noted.

Boko Haram got its start as an anti-technology movement, armed with swords and bows and arrows and condemning western knowledge as blasphemous. After the original group was massacred by military forces the group turned to more modern terrorist tactics, with assault weapons and explosives.