Human rights advocates have called for an investigation following the Nigerian army’s raid on a Shia Muslim sect, in which hundreds of people were reportedly killed.
Details of the weekend violence have been slow to emerge, with the three attacked areas of the northern town on lockdown as late as Tuesday. No one was allowed to enter or leave those areas during the lockdown.
Amnesty International said in a statement that the shooting of members of the sect “must be urgently investigated ... and anyone found responsible for unlawful killings must be brought to justice.”
MK Ibrahim, director of Amnesty in Nigeria, said: “Whilst the final death toll is unclear, there is no doubt of that there has been a substantial loss of life at the hands of the military,” said
The bloodshed was yet another blow to Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, which is already beset by a six-year-old insurgency waged by the violent Islamist group Boko Haram.
Ibrahim Musa, a spokesman for the Shia Islamic Movement in Nigeria, said soldiers on Monday carried away about 200 bodies from around the home of the sect’s leader Ibraheem Zakzaky, who was himself badly wounded and whose whereabouts have not been disclosed by the authorities.
Hundreds more corpses were in the mortuary, Musa added. Human rights activists said hundreds of people, perhaps as many as 1,000, were killed.
The army said troops attacked sites in Zaria after 500 Shias blocked the convoy of the army chief and tried to kill him on Saturday. A report from the military police said some people were crawling through tall grass towards General Tukur Buratai’s vehicle “with the intent to attack the vehicle with [a] petrol bomb,” while others “suddenly resorted to firing gunshots from the direction of the mosque”.
The army said there was “loss of lives as a result of the Shia group members blocking roads and not allowing other passersby to go about their lawful businesses and activities.” It added that “as soon as order is restored ... the police will conduct an enquiry and the public will be informed.”
Chidi Odinkalu of the Nigerian Human Rights Commission called the attacks a massacre. The army said it has asked the rights commission to investigate the alleged assassination attempt on the general.
Odinkalu said Zakzaky suffered four bullet wounds and that one of the sect leader’s wives was killed in raids that began on Saturday and ended on Monday morning. He was quoting the family’s doctor. Two of Zakzaky’s sons were also killed and one was wounded, according to Musa.
Odinkalu and other human rights activists said there were hundreds of bodies at the mortuary of the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital on the outskirts of Zaria.
Outraged Nigerians took to social media to condemn what they called “trigger-happy troops” and “extrajudicial killings”. Odinkalu tweeted: “Citizens must ask, who ordered this carnage?”
Iran, seen as the guardian of the Shia Muslim faith, condemned the killings. President Hassan Rouhani told President Muhammadu Buhari that he expects the Nigerian government to compensate bereaved families and injured victims, Iran state television reported.
Hundreds of Shia Muslims protested in front of the Nigerian embassies in the Iranian and Indian capitals on Tuesday.
Nigeria’s Shia Muslims, a movement of millions, started 37 years ago by Zakzaky, who dresses in the robes and turban of an Iranian ayatollah. They have often clashed with police and other security forces over their unlawful blocking of major roads to hold religious processions.