Ø Says 10,000 died in custody in 9 yrs
The global human rights group, Amnesty International, has said that the Boko Haram insurgents have killed many aged citizens at disproportionate levels due to their inability to flee attacks.
In a 67-page report titled: ‘My heart is in pain: Older people’s experience of conflict, displacement, and detention in North-East Nigeria’, shows how both Boko Haram and the Nigerian military have committed atrocities against older women and men, with nobody held to account.
Picture Caption: Older Persons
The report, released on Monday, also focuses on how displaced older people are consistently overlooked by the humanitarian response; it revealed that humanitarian response got to them only as “an afterthought.” It noted that many villages in areas under Boko Haram control are populated by older people who are unable to flee or who choose to stay and continue working their land.
Since 2011, at least 10,000 persons have died in custody, many being detainees of Giwa Barracks, Maiduguri, Borno State.
In a statement made available to the media, the global watchdog also disclosed that the aged had become a major casualty figure in the terror war in the North-East.
It further noted that humanitarian agencies estimate that older people account for around 150,000 of the 2.1 million people displaced by the conflict in the North-East.
The research, carried out between November 2019 and October 2020, involved 62 older women and 71 older men affected by the conflict.
