Amnesty International said today that the Nigerian military has burned down and forced people to leave whole villages in response to a recent rise in attacks by the armed group Boko Haram. The report is based on interviews with affected farmers in Borno State and analysis of satellite data.
The military also arrested six men from the relocated towns for no reason. This is another example of the abuses that Amnesty International has seen during the country’s ten-year armed war in the northeast. Before they were freed on January 30, 2020, the guys were kept from talking to each other for almost a month and were treated badly.
“These blatant acts of destroying whole villages, destroying civilian homes, and forcing people to leave their homes without a good military reason should be looked into as possible war crimes,” said Osai Ojigho, Director of Amnesty International Nigeria.
These bold acts of setting whole towns on fire, burning civilian homes on purpose, and forcing people to leave their homes without a good military reason should be looked into as possible war crimes.
Osai Ojigho, who is in charge of Amnesty International Nigeria,
“They use the same brutal methods that the Nigerian military has used against civilians for a long time.” Forces that are said to be guilty for these kinds of violations must be stopped right away and punished.
Not allowed methods
Since December 2019, Boko Haram has been attacking more in northeastern Nigeria. They mostly target the main road that connects Maiduguri to Damaturu, which is the center of both Borno and Yobe States. A recent trip by Amnesty International to Borno State for study shows that the Nigerian military has used illegal methods to respond to the attacks, which have hurt people very badly and may even be war crimes.
Twelve women and men from three towns near the Maiduguri-Damaturu road, between Jakana and Mainok in Borno State, were interviewed by Amnesty International on January 3 and 4, 2020. They had been forced to leave their homes. The group also looked at fire data from remote satellite sensing, which shows that there were several big fires in that area on and around January 3. Almost every building in Bukarti, Ngariri, and Matiri was destroyed, as seen from space. The pictures also show signs of fire in towns nearby.
Amnesty International heard from many people in Bukarti that a lot of Nigerian soldiers arrived in the late morning of Friday, January 3, 2013. People who were there said that troops went from house to house and into the fields nearby and made everyone meet under a tree and by a graveyard between Bukarti and the main road. Soldiers also grouped up people from Matiri, which is close by, and brought them to the same place.
Villages set on fire
Around 3 p.m. on January 3, forces told everyone to walk to the main road, where they were made to get on big trucks. Witnesses said that some of the forces went back to Bukarti while they were being put into the trucks. After that, the onlookers saw their village on fire.
“Our homes caught fire,” a woman from Bukarti who was about 70 years old said. “Everyone began to cry.”
“We saw our homes catch fire.” We all began to cry.
A woman from Bukarti who is about 70 years old.
After that, the trucks took more than 400 women, men, and children from Bukarti and Matiri to an IDP camp close to Maiduguri.
Three people who live in Ngariri say that troops went to their town the next day, on January 4, which is across the main road from Bukarti. Soldiers rounded up mostly older women and men—younger adults had already run away to nearby farms—and pushed them onto a truck that took them to Maiduguri. Then Ngariri was destroyed.
Amnesty International heard from people who went back to check on Bukarti and Ngariri that everything had been set on fire. Satellite images show that both towns were burned down in early January.
Amnesty International talked to witnesses who said they lost everything because they couldn’t bring their things with them. This included their homes, jewelry, clothes, and, worst of all, the crops they had saved after the harvest.
“We lost everything we worked for, and some of our animals died,” a farmer in his 60s said. “I had saved enough food for a year. I would have sold it to buy my family clothes and other things.”
“Even our food was burned—it would have fed my family for two years,” said a 30-year-old man who came back after weeks to see the damage. “Our clothes, food, crops, and kettles.” Even the cart we used to get water. The only things left are the metal plates; everything else is burned.
It is a war crime to order the people who lived in these towns to leave when their safety or important military reasons did not require it. After that, setting fire to their homes may also be a war crime.