Boko Haram Attacks Indefensible

Human Rights Watch

8 November 2011

Boko Haram Attacks Indefensible

Hold Perpetrators Accountable, Ensure Security Forces Respect Rights

Boko Haram has once again demonstrated its utter disregard for human life. The authorities should act swiftly to bring to justice those responsible for these terrible crimes and for earlier attacks that left hundreds dead.

Corinne Dufka, senior West Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch (Abuja) – The bombings by the militant Islamist group Boko Haram that killed at least 100 people in the northern Nigerian state of Yobe on November 4, 2011, were an indefensible attack on human life, Human Rights Watch said today.

Since the beginning of 2011, Boko Haram has been implicated in attacks that have killed more than 425 people, including police officers, soldiers, community leaders, politicians, Islamic clerics, Christian pastors, and church members. The attacks on November 4 resulted in the highest death toll in a single day since Boko Haram began its campaign of violence in Nigeria in July 2009.

“Boko Haram has once again demonstrated its utter disregard for human life,” said Corinne Dufka, senior West Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The authorities should act swiftly to bring to justice those responsible for these terrible crimes and for earlier attacks that left hundreds dead.”