Investigate rampant killings in South-East – Intersociety tells UN, Amnesty International
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Amnesty International have been urged to take action against the allegedly ongoing killings in the South-East, particularly in Imo State, by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety).
The group made the request in Enugu at a news conference led by Emeka Umeagbalasi, Board Chairman of Intersociety, Nigeria.
In order to hold investigations into gruesome and flagrant human rights abuses and violations, like as those in Imo State, he requested the UN Commissioner for Human Rights to appoint Special Rapporteurs from the UNHCR.
In Imo State, he claimed, “till date, not even a single armed state actor or armed non state actor perpetrator; or a public official or office holder aiding the killings has been brought to accountability, including being investigated, tried, convicted, and jailed.” He added that “till date, not even a single armed state actor or armed non state actor perpetrator; or a public official or office holder aiding the killings has been brought to accountability.”
Armed non-state actors killed 300 people and kidnapped 900 civilians in 29 months. The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has determined that in the 29-month period from January 2021 to May 2023, in Imo State, at least 900 innocent individuals were kidnapped by five of the eight known armed non-state entities. Of those, 33% or 300 were women and children.
The 300 victims of the captivity killings by the kidnappers represent those who were either unable to return to their families alive or were assumed to have been killed in captivity due to their inability to pay ransoms, who died from torture or gunshot wounds, or because they refused to be raped, if they were female, or recite Islamic incantations and be converted to Islam, if they were abducted on religious grounds.
“A greater number of political abduction victims passed away in captivity after being taken.” Some of the 900 abductees who made it home alive later perished from terminal injuries sustained during their captivity by five out of eight armed non-state actor entities in Imo, or from serious health problems related to their captivity.
In Imo State and the South-East, he claimed, “the total of the aforementioned has institutionalized impunity and’repeat-offenses’.”
“Intersociety is also attracting the attention of the International Secretariat of Amnesty International headed by Dr. Agnes Callamard (respected former UN Special Rapporteur on Summary, Arbitrary and Extrajudicial Killings or Executions), as well as the Executive Director of the US respected Human Rights Watch, Mr. Kenneth Roth, etc.; calling on them to use their good offices to cause their respected and respective global rights organizations to focus on summary, arbitrarily or extrajudicial killings,” Um
“We call upon them to take this research and investigative report of ours to the next critical level with other apostles and disciples of justice, including human rights and democracy leaders within and beyond Imo State and the South-East,” he said.
