HRW: Nigeria Soldiers Killed Shiite Children, No Provocation

The army denies killing hundreds of people but has not given any casualty figures. “At best it was a brutal overreaction and at worst it was a planned attack on the minority Shia group”, the Human Rights Watch has said.

The Shiites Islamic sect, on Saturday, blasted the Kaduna state governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, for allegedly making indicting pronouncements against the sect following the recent clash between the sect members and the Nigerian army in Zaria.

Witnesses said that the soldiers of Africa’s biggest economy disposed of hundreds of bodies by throwing them in mass graves, making it hard to establish an accurate death toll, according to HRW.

The Army swiftly denied killing the sect leader’s wife in a press release, saying she was alive and well.

At least 300 Shiites were killed over the two days the army carried out its attacks, the report said. Speaking in a television interview, Army spokesman, Col. Sani Usman, made it clear that the military had to take proactive steps against the group to prevent a situation in the past repeating itself, where Boko Haram, a similar sect, was allowed to grow from an outlaw group to the world renowned terrorist group that threatened the nation.

The group’s leader, Ibrahim Zakzaky, who started Nigeria’s Shiite movement 37 years ago, was wounded and is among scores detained.

Human Rights Watch said today the Judicial Commission of Inquiry set up by the government should be sufficiently independent and impartial to hold those responsible to account.

A visit to the website – www.courtofappeal.gov.ng- will redirect you to a cached page, which has on it, a message from the hackers to the Nigerian government and other governments “killing Muslims and innocent people”.

Between raids and suicide bombings, Boko Haram has severely damaged infrastructure in Nigeria’s impoverished northeast at a time when the commodity-dependent country is facing a cash crunch thanks to plunging oil prices.

They, however, want President Muhammadu Buhari to end human right abuses in the Nigerian military.