Aged people killed by Boko Haram and military—AI
By Modupe Shodeinde
Global Human Rights group, Amnesty International, has said that the elderly are the most vulnerable to attacks by the Boko Haram insurgents in the Northeast.
In a 67-page report published on Monday, Amnesty International recalled older people’s experience of the conflict, displacement, and detention in Northeast Nigeria.
The organisation also disclosed that older people were killed both by the terrorist group and the military.
It stated that many villages in areas frequently invaded by the terrorist group are largely populated by old people who cannot flee or who choose to stay and work on their land.
It focused on how displaced elderly people are consistently overlooked by the humanitarian response.
According to the global human rights, a review of more than 120 images of corpses brought from the barracks to a local mortuary, and speaking to individuals with insider knowledge revealed that an estimation of “15-25 per cent of those who have perished are older men.”
It further noted that humanitarian agencies estimated that older people accounted for around 150,000 of the 2.1 million people displaced by the conflict in North-East.
The Director of Crisis Response at Amnesty International, Joanne Mariner, said, “When Boko Haram has invaded towns and villages, older men and women have often been among the last to flee, leaving them particularly exposed to the armed group’s brutality and repression – amounting to war crimes and likely crimes against humanity.
“This has included torture, being forced to witness killings and abductions of their children, as well as looting, resulting in extreme food insecurity.”
The director also added that “Nigeria’s military, in turn, has repeatedly shot older people to death in their own homes during raids on villages in Boko Haram-controlled areas.”
The report stated that older people in these villages faces a lot of threats from all sides.
“Boko Haram loots their property and often restricts older women’s movement, making it harder for families to earn money and feed themselves,” it read.
The report added that “Boko Haram also abducts or kills their children and grandchildren, and sometimes tortures or kills the older people themselves,”
The research which was carried out between November 2019 and October 2020 involved 62 older women and 71 older men affected by the conflict.
