A total of Seven Thousand, Nine Hundred and Four (7,904) persons were victims of violent killings by Boko Haram/Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists and other armed groups in Nigeria between 2018 and now, with 1,416 killed in the first quarter of this year (2020).
A major civil society group, the Joint Action Civil Society Coalition said in a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday in commemoration of the third National Day of Mourning (NDOM) in Nigeria expressed regret with the “the destruction associated with this spiraling crisis of violence and mass killings,” lamenting that it “has been grossly under-reported.”
The statement, signed by the Executive Director of Global Rights, Mrs Abiodun Bayewu, noted that even with the suppression of information on these killings, it is quite clear that the toll of killings has risen dramatically in recent times.
The statement stated that Nigerian “continues to experience an exponentially rise in violence, perpetrated by organized criminal groups with a monumental loss of lives, livelihoods, and property. For the most part, the destruction associated with this spiraling crisis of violence and mass killings has been grossly under-reported. Even with the suppression of information on these killings, it is quite clear that the toll of killings has risen dramatically in recent times.
“Between 2018 and now, we have recorded the deaths of at least seven thousand nine hundred and four (7,904) Nigerians to violent killings across the country; with the first quarter of 2020 alone making up about one thousand four hundred and sixteen (1,416) of these deaths. From
“Akwa-Ibom to Zamfara, Nigerians wake up daily to fresh news of mass atrocities which are barely acknowledged by the government and a vast majority of fellow citizens. This is an anomaly that must end. In parts of the North-East, Boko Haram continues to terrorize, killing thousands of Nigerians going about their livelihoods.
While in parts of the North-West, including Kajuru and Birnin-Gwari in Kaduna and much of Zamfara and Katsina States, and Taraba State in the North-Central, vast swathes of ungoverned territory have been taken over by rustlers, bandits and vigilantes whose preferred currency is blood. The Southern States of the country have not been spared in the ongoing bloodletting, as at least 34 out of the 36 states have experienced at least 1 episode of violent killings within the first quarter of 2020 alone.”
The group noted that “extrajudicial killings and human rights abuses by state security personnel have been on an alarming high, in nearly all the states where the Covid-19 lockdown measures were enforced. There has been no accountability for these killings. The pervasive impunity and frequency of violent killings in Nigeria are of grave concern to citizens and all people who wish our country well. The chronic mass killings across Nigeria has become a blot on the collective conscience of our Nigerian humanity. As a country, we seem to have normalized the violent killings of our citizens.
“Reports have reduced human lives lost to mere numbers that are bandied and argued about without thought of properly accounting for them or according them dignity, by naming them. They have also given rise to mass displacement, creating civic, humanitarian, and food security crises. In turn and together, this situation now endangers the very existence and coexistence of Nigeria, as never since the civil war have we been this divided”
“Thus, as Nigerian citizens and members of organized civil society, we call on the Federal government to live up to its primary responsibility of protecting lives and property and promoting the welfare of all who live in Nigeria. We, therefore, demand from the executive and legislative arms of government, clear measurable steps to end the impunity that has led to the spiral of the conflict in the regions by immediately ordering of a full investigation into the killings to fish out and bringing the perpetrators of the crisis to justice.”
The group also called on the federal government to ensure the provision of humanitarian aid and assistance to communities displaced by the crisis; to take essential measures to combat the proliferation of small arms and light weapons across the region and their further inflow into the country; and to ensure an urgent accounting of the missing and dead, and an estimation of the loss incurred by individuals and impacted communities.
