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Widespread Violence Brought Buhari to Power, Says Human Rights Watch
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The Nigeria elections in 2019 that gave President Muhammadu Buhari a second term were marred by political violence, Human Rights Watch has said.
The report issued by the organisation on Monday said some cases of the violence were carried out by soldiers and police officers.
“Buhari should take concrete steps to address the widespread political violence, and to ensure accountability for human rights abuses by soldiers and police as he begins his second term,” the report said.
“The election period included persistent attacks by factions of the insurgent group Boko Haram in the northeast; increased communal violence between nomadic herdsmen and farmers spreading southward from north-central states; and a dramatic uptick in banditry, kidnapping, and killings in the northwestern states of Kaduna, Katsina, and Zamfara.
“Security forces have failed to respond effectively to threats to people’s lives and security.”
The report quoted Anietie Ewang, Nigerian researcher at Human Rights Watch, as saying that, “The lack of meaningful progress in addressing the prevalent political violence, as well as lack of accountability for rights abuses, marked Buhari’s first term in office.
“He should put these issues at the front and centre of his second term agenda and urgently take concrete steps to improve respect for human rights.”
The statement said that Human Rights Watch interviewed 32 people, including voters, journalists, election observers, activists, and Independent National Electoral Commission officials in Rivers and Kano states, and documented 11 deaths specifically related to violent interference in the election process during the February 23 federal elections and subsequent state elections.
It said the elections contributed to the general insecurity across the country, even as politically related violence were reported in many states in contrast to the relatively peaceful 2015 elections that brought Buhari into his first term in office.
Citing a report by SBM Intelligence, which monitors sociopolitical and economic developments in Nigeria, the statement said 626 people were killed during the 2019 election cycle, starting with campaigns in 2018.
“Kano state, in northwestern Nigeria, has the highest number of registered voters in the country. Rivers state, in the Niger Delta, receives the largest share of crude-oil-based national revenue, representing significant electoral value to any political party,” the report said.
“The history of elections in both states is replete with violence by state security agencies and criminal elements.”
The report noted that despite police claims of increased security measures to ensure peaceful voting, HRW found that there seemed to have been little or no police response to reports of threats and acts of violence by hired political thugs and soldiers against voters and election officials.
“Voters and election officials said that policemen either fled or stood idly by, fueling allegations of complicity, as perpetrators stole election materials, disrupted voting, and harassed voters,” said the report.
“Witnesses said that the police also shot live rounds of ammunition and used teargas to disperse people protesting voting disruptions.
“Witnesses said that after a soldier was killed in the town of Abonnema, in Rivers state, on election day, soldiers shot at residents, killing an unknown number of people.”
HRW said soldiers also carried out sweeping arrests and arbitrarily detained several people.
The report also cited a 37-year old man who witnessed the incident. He said, “The soldiers were on a rampage, shooting at anyone around. As I made my way to flee, I saw people dive into the river, many with gunshot wounds. The next day I saw three dead bodies riddled with bullets floating in the water… I heard many more bodies were later recovered from that river.”
The army, HRW reported, said in a statement that on election day, unidentified people attacked soldiers, killing one, and that the soldiers killed six of the attackers in response.
“On March 15, the spokesperson for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Festus Okoye, accused soldiers of intimidation and unlawful arrest of election officials in the state,” the report further noted.
“The Nigerian Army on the same day announced the creation of a committee to investigate allegations of misconduct against its personnel during the elections. The committee was given two weeks to produce its findings, but it has not published its report.”
HRW also reported the rising cases of Banditry and the recurring cycles of deadly violence between herdsmen and farmers, which it said had taken the lives of thousands.
Citing a civil society report, HRW said over 3,641 people have died from deadly clashes between herdsmen and farmers since 2015 and at least 262 people have been killed by bandits since the beginning of 2019 in Zamfara State alone.
“The government deployed 1,000 military troops to the state in response, but few of those responsible for the violence have been arrested or held to account,” it said.
On the activities of Boko Haram, HRW noted that in recent months, renewed fighting between Nigerian government forces and a faction of Boko Haram, known as Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP), has led to secondary displacement of civilians.
“Security forces have been implicated in serious abuses, including arbitrary arrests, prolonged detention without trial, torture, extrajudicial killings, rape and sexual violence against women and girls in camps for displaced people,” the report further documented.
It also cited the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which stated that more than 27,000 civilians have died and about 1.8 million people have been displaced since the beginning of the conflict in 2009.
“Authorities have also failed to address impunity for killings by security forces elsewhere in the country. The authorities have yet to publish the report of the Presidential Judicial Panel set up in August 2017 to investigate the military’s compliance with human rights obligations, allegations of war crimes, and other abuses by the military,” it said.
The report also quoted Mr Ewang as saying that Nigerian voters had entrusted Buhari with another opportunity to address the nation’s serious human rights problems, including political violence.
“He should start by reforming the security forces to ensure strict compliance with human rights standards, and prompt investigation and prosecution of those credibly implicated in abuses,” he said.
Premium Times
One person has been killed and 11 injured in a second strike on the international airport in the Saudi capital Riyadh, officials have said.
A Saudi military spokesman said a projectile had hit King Khalid International Airport on Sunday, causing a fire in one of its passenger halls. Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said in a statement on X that one person, a Pakistani resident, had been killed in the attack.
It comes a day after a strike on the same airport killed 13 people and injured 308 others, following similar strikes earlier this week.
The Houthis in Yemen said they were behind the attacks and warned airlines and passengers against using Saudi Arabian airports and airspace.
The group said they had targeted the airport with a mix of ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as drones in the past 24 hours.
They also attacked oil facilities and Dammam airport in eastern Saudi Arabia, their military spokesman Brig Gen Yahya Saree said.
He vowed to continue the “escalating operations deep inside Saudi Arabia”, warning that all Saudi airports were potential targets apart from those in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
The Houthis have said they are targeting Saudi Arabia over its support for government forces in Yemen’s civil war, as well as an air strike on the airport in Sanaa.
On Sunday Maj Gen Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition, said air defences had intercepted a missile near the airport in Riyadh, while authorities were dealing with the fire caused by an “unknown projectile” that hit Passenger Hall No 4.
US President Donald Trump has said the US would “make a decision” and “move very quickly” on whether to strike the Houthis, while UK Defence Secretary Wes Streeting suggested the UK could “potentially” provide more support for Saudi Arabia.
Saturday’s strike was the deadliest single attack on a Gulf Arab country since the war between Israel, the US and Iran began in February. The Saudi-led coalition vowed to respond, calling it a “war crime”.
Four Saudi nationals, two people from Bangladesh and one person each from the US, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan and Egypt were among the dead, the Saudi civil aviation authority said.
The Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia said on Sunday that an Indian man had succumbed to the injuries he sustained in the attack.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the attacks and confirmed that a US citizen was killed in the strikes. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said he was “appalled”.
The UK Foreign Office is advising against all travel to parts of Saudi Arabia, including areas within 10km (6.2 miles) of the border with Yemen, while other western embassies have warned their nationals about travel in the region.
Over 1,000 Islamic clerics have urged President Bola Tinubu not to seek re-election in the 2027 presidential election, citing economic crisis, insecurity and other challenges facing the country.
The call was contained in a communique issued at the end of a national conference on “An Assessment of the State of the Nation under President Tinubu and the 2027 General Elections,” held in Kano State on Sunday.
This comes at a time when the Jama’atul Izalatul Bid’a Wa Iqamatussunnah (JIBWIS) and Qadiriyya Sufi sect, among other Islamic groups, endorsed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima for the 2027 presidential election, urging its members nationwide to support their re-election.
JIBWIS and Qadiriyya allegedly endorsed Tinubu’s candidature during separate visits to their leadership by Senator Abdul’aziz Yari, the Director-General of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council.
However, the Islamic clerics under the umbrella of Ko Da Naka…For the Struggle to Promote Good Governance and Community Development, in collaboration with AFAQ Educational Foundation, expressed dissatisfaction with the manner in which the administration of President Tinubu is running the country.
The clerics unanimously agreed that Tinubu’s economic policies, including the removal of the fuel subsidy, changes to the naira exchange-rate system, increases in electricity tariffs, and tax reforms, have increased the burden of hardship on ordinary citizens.
The conference expressed its dissatisfaction with the manner in which the Tinubu administration is being run, particularly the continued implementation of economic policies which participants unanimously agreed have increased the burden of hardship on ordinary citizens.
“It is unfortunate that the government has continued to insist on pursuing these policies, which are increasing hardship among the people, rather than reviewing and correcting them. The government prioritised the growth of its revenue at a time when the rising cost of living and unemployment are threatening the lives and well-being of citizens.
“Consequently, participants at the conference unanimously agreed that it would be inappropriate to re-elect this government in the forthcoming 2027 general elections if it does not change its harmful economic policies,” the communique reads in part.
Also, the participants of the conference expressed concern over the continued killings and kidnappings by bandits, and other acts of terrorism across the country.
They, therefore, called on the government to take urgent action to address insecurity, particularly in the North-West and other parts of the country.
The communique added, “Alternatively, the President should refrain from contesting the 2027 election. If he refuses to do so, it is incumbent upon citizens to reject his candidacy and allow those whom they believe can provide better leadership.”
Some of the clerics who presented papers at the conference included Dr. Abdulmuɗɗalib Ahmad Giɗaɗo, Prof Muhd Muslim Ibrahim, Sheikh Kabir Bashir Abdulhamid, Dr Aminu Isma’il Sagagi, Dr Najibullah Abdallah Nuhu, Sheikh Abdurrazaq Uba Musa, Sheikh Musa Muhd Ɗan kwano, Brr El-Zubair, Dr Yahuza Getso, Prof Ibrahim Siraj Adhama, Dr. Umar Dokaji and Sheikh Muhd Sani Khamis (Abu Haisam).
Israelis gathered in silence on Wednesday to mark three years since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attacks, while Palestinians in Gaza mourned the destruction and displacement caused by the war that followed.
In Kfar Aza, a kibbutz near the Gaza border that was overrun by Hamas militants three years ago, residents held a vigil for those killed in the attack.
A trumpet played a solemn bugle call as residents stood in silence and a roll call of those killed was read out.
Zion Regev, a community leader in Kfar Aza, said many residents remained displaced and had yet to return to the community.
“This is the first time we are doing all the things here in the kibbutz,” Regev said of the vigil. “It’s a very emotional day, it’s a very difficult day for our community, three years after October 7th.”
The October 7 attacks were the deadliest day in Israel’s history. Militants led by Hamas killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, according to Israeli figures cited by Reuters.
The attacks triggered Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, where more than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to figures cited by Reuters.
The anniversary comes as the conflict remains unresolved despite a ceasefire agreement reached in October 2025 that halted major fighting but has not ended violence or secured the disarmament of Hamas.
In Israel, protesters gathered outside parliament in Jerusalem to demand accountability for the security failures surrounding the October 7 attacks.
Some protesters blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for resisting calls for an independent investigation into how Hamas was able to carry out the assault.
“We need the change and we need hope and we need to know that we have a government that cares about the public and doesn’t work also only for themselves,” protester Shaked Arrad said.
Netanyahu has rejected blame for the security breach and resisted calls for an independent inquiry.
The anniversary is also taking place 20 days before Israel’s scheduled general election, with the war and the government’s handling of the October 7 attack expected to remain major political issues.
In Gaza, Palestinians displaced by the conflict recalled their lives before the war as they continued to live among destroyed buildings and makeshift shelters.
Israel currently controls about two-thirds of the Gaza Strip, while Hamas controls the remaining area, where most of Gaza’s roughly two million residents are living in tents or damaged buildings, according to Reuters.
Umm Mohammad, a mother of five displaced from Gaza City and now living in a tent encampment in Deir Al-Balah, said the conflict had separated her family.
“We were one happy family. The war displaced us. My son left Gaza, the other went to a separate tent, my daughters left with their husbands to other parts of the Strip and we rarely meet,” she said.
On the anniversary, she added: “We recall how happy, despite all problems, we were before the war broke out, destroying everything we loved.”
The latest violence also continued despite the ceasefire. Gaza medics said Israeli strikes on Beit Lahia and Khan Younis killed at least two Palestinians and wounded others on Wednesday.
The Israeli military said it had struck a militant target in Beit Lahia but did not immediately comment on the reported strike in Khan Younis.
Three years after the October 7 attacks, the anniversary has brought renewed mourning in Israel and Gaza, while questions over accountability, security and the future of the conflict remain unresolved.
Reuters
