South-East Nigeria: A Region Gripped by fear and Insecurity
Table of Contents
Climate of Fear and Disruption to Daily Life
Insecurity has become a defining feature of life in South-East Nigeria,profoundly impacting the fundamental rights of communities across Abia,Anambra,Ebonyi,Enugu,and Imo states. The rights to life, physical integrity, security, liberty, and freedom of movement are routinely violated, fostering a climate of pervasive fear. For years, many residents have been unable to return to their ancestral homes, paralyzed by the threat of attack or abduction.
This insecurity has dramatically altered traditional practices.Once-vibrant traditional marriage and burial ceremonies, historically held in ancestral homes, are now increasingly conducted in communities outside the South-East, as families seek safer locations to gather and mourn.
The situation has deteriorated to the point where gunmen have effectively established control over certain communities, turning them into “ungoverned spaces.” This is evident in areas like Agwa and Izombe in Imo State’s Oguta Local Government Area (LGA), and Lilu in Anambra State’s Ihiala LGA, where traditional rulers have been ousted, residents displaced, and total authority seized by armed groups.
amnesty International’s recent report details widespread abuses perpetrated by various cult groups operating wiht impunity amidst a flourishing drug trade in towns across Anambra State, including Obosi, Awka, Onitsha, Ogidi, and Umuoji. These groups contribute considerably to the overall insecurity and lawlessness plaguing the region.
State-Sponsored and Security Force Abuses
The report also highlights the troubling role of the Ebube Agu paramilitary force, established by South-East governors in April 2021. Intended to enhance security, Ebube Agu has rather been implicated in harassment, intimidation of opponents and critics of state governments, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, and the destruction of homes.
Furthermore, Nigerian security agencies – including the military and police - have committed serious human rights violations during operations in the South-east. These include unlawful killings, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, enforced disappearances, and the destruction of property.
Despite the extensive and documented atrocities, justice remains elusive for victims of the violence, and adequate reparations are rarely provided.
“No one knows exactly the number of people killed in the southeast since August 2015,” states Isa Sanusi. “Many people have been declared missing or forcibly disappeared. The sheer number of high-profile killings, coupled with the constant fear of attack, anywhere and anytime, demonstrates a critical failure by the authorities to protect lives and property and maintain law and order.Impunity for these human rights crimes continues to have a chilling effect on the enjoyment of other human rights.”
Sanusi emphasizes the urgent need for action: “The Nigerian authorities must uphold their constitutional and international human rights obligations by guaranteeing, protecting, and ensuring the rights to life, physical integrity, and liberty security and safety of the people and stemming the tide of rampant insecurity in the South-East region. Authorities must undertake prompt, thorough, independent, impartial, clear and effective investigations into all allegations of violations and abuses committed by state and non-state actors in the region.”
Background
Amnesty International has been meticulously documenting human rights violations in the South-East as August 2015, perpetrated by state actors, non-state armed groups, criminal gangs, and state-backed paramilitary organizations. This report builds upon previous research, including a November 2016 publication detailing the brutal crackdown on pro-Biafra activists by Nigerian security forces (https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr44/5211/2016/en/).
The findings of this report were shared with the governors of the South-East states and Nigeria’s security agencies; however, no response was received.
