Amnesty accuses Nigeria of killing at least 150 Biafra separatists

Amnesty International accused Nigerian security forces on Thursday of killing at least 150 peaceful advocates of Biafra’s secession from Africa’s most populous nation, but the military and police dismissed the allegations.

An army spokesman said Amnesty’s statement, the latest in a series of allegations of impropriety levelled against Nigeria’s military in the last year, aimed to tarnish the security forces’ reputation. The police said they did not attack people holding demonstrations.

Amnesty said the military fired live ammunition, with little or no warning, to disperse members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) group between August 2015 and August 2016.

Secessionist feeling has simmered in the southeast since the Biafra separatist rebellion tipped the west African country into a 1967-1970 civil war that killed an estimated 1 million people.

It flared up again last year after IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu was detained on charges of criminal conspiracy and belonging to an illegal society. That prompted supporters of Kanu to hold protests that Amnesty said were dispersed with live ammunition.

Army spokesman Sani Usman said Biafra separatists had behaved violently, killing five policeman at a protest in May and attacking both military and police vehicles.

“The military and other security agencies exercised maximum restraints despite the flurry of provocative and unjustifiable violence,” said Usman.

Nigeria Police Force spokesman Don Awunah said officers “always abide by the law” and adhere to best practices. “We don’t attack people who are demonstrating, which every Nigerian has a right to do,” he said.