Nigeria: Amnesty urges ICC to probe conflict atrocities

By Rafiu Ajakaye

LAGOS, Nigeria (AA) - Amnesty International on Monday said the International Criminal Court (ICC) should launch a probe into atrocities committed by Boko Haram insurgency, accusing Nigerian government of failing to bring perpetrators to justice.

The demand followed claims of a Dec. 5 publication by the ICC that Abuja has not held people to account over numerous rights violations in the country's northeast, where Nigeria is fighting an insurgency that claimed over 30,000 lives and displaced nearly 3 million people.

“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 (officials),” Amnesty International said in a report on Monday.

The rights body dismissed the recent mass trials of Boko Haram suspects in Nigeria as a “sham,” saying the suspects neither had quality legal representations nor were they afforded global standard of fair hearing after years of “unlawful detention.”

It also accused the Nigerian authorities of failing to genuinely investigate allegations of human rights abuses against some army generals.

Netsanet Belay, Amnesty International’s Africa director for research and advocacy, called on the office of the ICC prosecutor to “urgently open a full investigation into the atrocities that have been committed in northeast Nigeria.”

The Nigerian military -- the main subject of the Amnesty’s attack -- has yet to issue any official statement on the latest report.

The army had previously accused the rights body of wanting to criminalize government's fight against Boko Haram.