Amnesty International has strongly criticized the persistent insecurity in Southeast Nigeria between January 2021 and June 2023, stating that both state and non-state actors were involved in widespread human rights violations.
According to its comprehensive 56-page report titled “A Decade of Impunity: Attacks and Unlawful Killings in Southeast Nigeria,” at least 1,844 people were killed during this period.
Amnesty International attributes these deaths to a confluence of violence perpetrated by armed groups, state-backed militias, criminal gangs, vigilantes, cult groups, and the Nigerian security forces themselves.
The organization underscores that the Nigerian authorities’ ongoing failure to address these crises has guaranteed near total impunity for perpetrators, fostering a culture of lawlessness and fear across the region.
The violence was not limited to any single group. While authorities frequently blamed the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its military wing, the Eastern Security Network (ESN), for many deadly incidents, Amnesty International notes that “unknown gunmen” were responsible for over 400 deaths in Imo State between 2019 and 2021 alone.
These gunmen, who often conducted attacks on villages, residents, police stations, and vigilante posts unmasked, demanded money from communities and violently punished perceived resistance.
Gunmen sometimes asserted effective control over entire communities, displacing residents and even sacking traditional leaders. Heavily armed, they would set homes on fire and kill anyone who tried to block their path.
IPOB and ESN were also implicated in abuses related to the enforcement of “sit-at-home” orders, especially after August 2021.
Amnesty describes a situation where people were beaten or killed for defying these orders, and daily life in the southeast was upended.
Schools remained shuttered, exams were disrupted, and marketplaces were frequently closed, with devastating economic and social consequences for residents of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo states.
Many people avoided traveling to their hometowns for fear of attack or abduction, and important social gatherings including marriage and burial ceremonies were increasingly relocated away from their communities.
A particularly worrying dimension detailed in the report is the emergence of ungoverned spaces. Amnesty highlights that local cult gangs, especially in Anambra State, have contributed significantly to insecurity, taking advantage of the chaos to entrench criminal enterprises such as the drug trade.
In several communities, legitimate governance was supplanted altogether as criminal and armed groups asserted control. The displacement of law-abiding residents, the installation of new power structures, and the occurrence of violent turf wars further destabilized the social fabric of the region.
The report also lays considerable blame on state-backed security outfits, particularly the Ebube Agu paramilitary force established in April 2021 by Southeast governors.
Amnesty documents how Ebube Agu became a tool of oppression, implicated in arbitrary arrests, torture, extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, and the destruction of homes.
Nigerian military and police forces were likewise implicated in unlawful killings, arrests, disappearances, and torture during operations in the region.
Amnesty argues that their heavy-handed tactics did not restore law and order but instead deepened the cycle of mistrust and violence.
Another central theme in Amnesty’s commentary is the impunity enjoyed by perpetrators of violence—whether armed groups, vigilantes, cults, or security agencies.
Despite the scale and visibility of atrocities, the report asserts that justice remains inaccessible to victims and their families.
There have been no meaningful efforts at impartial investigation or accountability, and the state has failed to meet both its constitutional and international obligations to protect its citizens’ rights to life, liberty, and personal security.
This neglect, Amnesty warns, carries dire long-term consequences and perpetuates a humanitarian crisis with far-reaching economic, psychological, and social impacts.
Amnesty’s findings draw on interviews with over 100 individuals, including survivors, relatives of victims, lawyers, civil society activists, and community and religious leaders, as well as visits to affected cities between April and November 2023.
Their evidence-based approach underscores the depth and widespread nature of the abuses in Southeast Nigeria.
Ultimately, Amnesty demands urgent action: a halt to impunity, thorough investigations, prosecution of all perpetrators (regardless of affiliation), comprehensive support for victims, and the restoration of law and order through respect for human rights and justice.
The security of lives and property in southeast Nigeria and the confidence of the average southeasterner in the Nigeria project must not be further eroded.