Iran Press/Africa: In a statement,Amnesty International has accused Nigeria’s government of carrying out unlawful arrests and practicing “enforced disappearance”.
The international rights organization said ,Nigerian government has used enforced disappearance as a longstanding tactic to silence critics and instill fear in civilian populations,”. “Enforced disappearance is an instrument of intimidation that grossly violates human rights. It is unacceptable and must stop.”
The statement added the government had kept some detainees incommunicado for nine years or more, without giving them access to their families or lawyers, and others have continued to languish in prisons despite court orders for their release.
Amnesty international also blasted the government for using enforced disappearance against people who were already faced with the threat of military operations and armed terror groups such as Boko Haram.
Among the detainees, there is IMN leader Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, who was illegally detained by government forces in a raid by the Nigerian army on his residence in the northern town of Zaria in December 2015.
Related: Nigerian protesters call for release of El-Zakzaky
Since 2009, Boko Haram militancy has left at least 20,000 dead and made over 2.6 million others homeless. The terrorists pledged allegiance to the Takfiri Daesh group in 2015.
Boko Haram, whose name roughly translates as “Western education is forbidden,” has used kidnapping as a weapon of war, seizing thousands of women and young girls as well as men and young boys.
Related:Nigeria's Boko Haram has abducted more than 1,000 children since 2013: U.N.
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