32 Dead At Nigeria Hospital After Soldiers Attack
https://nigeriaafrica1.blogspot.com/2012/10/32-dead-at-nigeria-hospital-after.html
Nigerian officials dumped dozens of corpses in front of a hospital in northeast Nigeria after soldiers opened fire and killed more than 30 civilians. The hospital, overwhelmed by the scale of the violence, had to turn away the dead as its morgue had no more room.
The killings Monday come as besieged, underpaid and enraged soldiers remain targets of guerrilla attacks by the extremist Islamist sect, Boko Haram, which holds this city in the grip of bloody violence.
That anger among the enlisted men and officers stationed throughout Nigeria's northeast has seen civilians harassed, arrested, tortured and even killed — raising concerns that Monday's attack may just be the tip of killings committed by security forces, human rights activists warn.
"This is just the latest in a number of incidents in Maiduguri where soldiers have allegedly committed serious abuses, including extrajudicial killings of community members following Boko Harm attacks," said Eric Guttschuss, who studies Nigeria for Human Rights Watch.
A bombing Monday morning by suspected members of Boko Haram that a soldier said killed a lieutenant sparked the violent retaliation. The troops opened fire with assault rifles and heavy machine guns mounted on armored personnel carriers on a busy street in Maiduguri, near the local headquarters of the Nigerian Union of Journalists.
An Associated Press journalist saw more than 50 shops and homes burned in the attacks Monday, with the bodies of civilians lying alongside the streets. The dead carried no weapons, nor any sign they belonged to the sect or posed a threat to the soldiers.
Footage aired Tuesday afternoon by the state-run Nigerian Television Authority showed people trying to splash water on their burning homes after the attack, while others fearfully raised their hands above their heads as a government motorcade sped past.
On Tuesday, a worker at Maiduguri General Hospital told the AP that officials collected 32 corpses after the attack. The hospital turned away other bodies as its morgue was full, the worker said, with bodies of the dead on the floors for hours. The worker spoke on condition of anonymity, out of fear of angering soldiers.
The worker said the remaining bodies were taken to the nearby Umaru Shehu Ultra-Modern Hospital. Officials there declined to talk Tuesday to an AP journalist.
In statements Tuesday, military spokesman Lt. Col. Sagir Musa denied that soldiers killed civilians and blamed the resulting fires and damage that went on for blocks on the single bomb that targeted soldiers earlier that morning. He did not explain how the dozens of civilians were shot dead.
While widely considered to have one of the strongest militaries in Africa, Nigeria's armed forces have been accused of killing civilians in the past — including after abandoning military rule for an uneasy democracy.
In 1999, ethnic Ijaw activists claimed more than 200 civilians were killed by the military in Odi in Bayelsa state. In 2001, soldiers burned down seven villages in Benue state and killed at least 150 civilians in the midst of ethnic violence there.
News Source: AP
That anger among the enlisted men and officers stationed throughout Nigeria's northeast has seen civilians harassed, arrested, tortured and even killed — raising concerns that Monday's attack may just be the tip of killings committed by security forces, human rights activists warn.
"This is just the latest in a number of incidents in Maiduguri where soldiers have allegedly committed serious abuses, including extrajudicial killings of community members following Boko Harm attacks," said Eric Guttschuss, who studies Nigeria for Human Rights Watch.
A bombing Monday morning by suspected members of Boko Haram that a soldier said killed a lieutenant sparked the violent retaliation. The troops opened fire with assault rifles and heavy machine guns mounted on armored personnel carriers on a busy street in Maiduguri, near the local headquarters of the Nigerian Union of Journalists.
An Associated Press journalist saw more than 50 shops and homes burned in the attacks Monday, with the bodies of civilians lying alongside the streets. The dead carried no weapons, nor any sign they belonged to the sect or posed a threat to the soldiers.
Footage aired Tuesday afternoon by the state-run Nigerian Television Authority showed people trying to splash water on their burning homes after the attack, while others fearfully raised their hands above their heads as a government motorcade sped past.
On Tuesday, a worker at Maiduguri General Hospital told the AP that officials collected 32 corpses after the attack. The hospital turned away other bodies as its morgue was full, the worker said, with bodies of the dead on the floors for hours. The worker spoke on condition of anonymity, out of fear of angering soldiers.
The worker said the remaining bodies were taken to the nearby Umaru Shehu Ultra-Modern Hospital. Officials there declined to talk Tuesday to an AP journalist.
In statements Tuesday, military spokesman Lt. Col. Sagir Musa denied that soldiers killed civilians and blamed the resulting fires and damage that went on for blocks on the single bomb that targeted soldiers earlier that morning. He did not explain how the dozens of civilians were shot dead.
While widely considered to have one of the strongest militaries in Africa, Nigeria's armed forces have been accused of killing civilians in the past — including after abandoning military rule for an uneasy democracy.
In 1999, ethnic Ijaw activists claimed more than 200 civilians were killed by the military in Odi in Bayelsa state. In 2001, soldiers burned down seven villages in Benue state and killed at least 150 civilians in the midst of ethnic violence there.
News Source: AP
