U.S. Calls for Probe Into Claims of Nigerian Army ‘Massacre’

While traveling in Zaria, Kaduna state, members of theIslamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) attacked the convoy of Chief of Army Staff Tukur Buratai on Saturday.

An eyewitness said the Shi’ite sect were preparing for a protest against the arrest of their leader, Sheik Ibraheem El-Zakzaky by the military when police operatives swooped on them to disperse the crowd in Tudun Wada area.

The bloodshed in Zaria was yet another setback to Africa’s most populous state beset by a six-year old insurgency waged by Boko Haram, a violent Islamic extremist group which is at odds with the Shiites and many others who oppose its extremist views. Speaking at a joint press conference with the Kaduna state Commissioner of Police, Umar Shehu, on Monday in Kaduna, Oyebade, a Major General, defended the army’s action saying it is the responsibility of the security forces to bring law and order back to society within the rules of engagement. Local sources say hundreds of people trying to protect the cleric were killed.

Ojo Momodu, a witness, said the Shia protesters barricaded the road with burning tyres as Buratai approached and then stoned his convoy.

“It is important to note that over the years this group has subjected ordinary citizens using public roads to untold delays, threats and disruption simply because they insist on using public space irrespective of inconvenience and hardship on other law-abiding citizens and motorists”, Usman said.

Two locations targeted by the military were an IMN shrine and the home of the group’s leader, Ibrahim Zakzaky.

A Nigerian military statement read that members of Zakzaky’s Islamic movement attacked a military convoy with stones in what it called an assassination attempt. Hundreds of Zakzaky’s followers went to the house to try to prevent his arrest.

Two of Mr Zakzaky’s sons were also killed and one was wounded, according to Mr Musa.

According to the son, Mr. Zakzaky’s family does not know about his current medical condition and want him to see a doctor immediately.

Movement spokesman Ibrahim Musa said the military retaliated with “indiscriminate killing”.

Hundreds of Shiites protested in front of the Nigerian embassies in the Iranian and Indian capitals on Tuesday.

Senior Iranian official Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has condemned the Nigerian military’s bloody crackdown on the Shia Muslim community in the African country.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.

On Wednesday, Sen. Shehu Sani, a human rights activist, said “The Zaria killings simply affirmed the fact that as a nation we have not learnt our lessons from our painful and hard experience”. Iran “demands the Nigerian government immediately shed light on the incidents, treat the injured, and compensate for damages”, IRNA said.

“Nigerian security forces have a history of carrying out unlawful killings and other human rights violations”. Indeed, they would appear to be mortal enemies, and Boko Haram has launched suicide bombers against Shia crowds.

This has raised concerns that the Nigerian military is acting unlawfully because no evidence demonstrates that Mr. Zakzaky’s rights are being preserved.

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