Lagos | Monday
IN DOZENS of accounts set out in a new report released on Monday, survivors of a Nigerian army massacre in which more than 200 civilians died last October detail the full horror of the gruesome killings.
Starting on October 22, and lasting for two days, the army launched a reprisal operation against members of the ethnic Tiv community in seven towns and villages, after members of the community were blamed for killing 19 soldiers that month.
Human Rights Watch on Monday issued a report condemning both the Nigerian government for its responsibility for the massacre and foreign powers including Britain and the United States for failing to condemn such gross human rights violations.
The accounts, gathered in December from dozens of survivors, told of a co-ordinated army attack in which unarmed civilians were gathered together, the men separated from the women and children, and the main group of men then raked by fire.
A 28-year-old hospitalised with serious injuries told the report’s researchers how the attack took place in the town of Gbeji, where more than 150 people were killed.
”They gathered people in the market. They said they didn’t want to see women or children. The women and children went away. About thirty minutes later, they started killing people,” he said.
”They came over and checked to see if people were still alive. If you started shaking, they would shoot you. They put fuel over us… I have burns on my knees. I was the last person to be shot,” the man added.
Another survivor was a man in his thirties, being treated in hospital in the Benue State capital of Makurdi, for appalling burns injuries which covered his body and face.
”I was shot but fell on the ground and those who were shot fell on me and there was blood all over me but I was conscious and was watching all that was going on,” he said.
”The commander then ordered for the sprayer which was used to spray petrol over the heap of the shot people and then set ablaze,” he said.
”The commander just said ‘Fire!”’ said another survivor from Gbeji.
”The soldiers opened fire… some people were set on fire alive before they were shot,” the survivor said.
A 15-year-old boy watched as his father was shot, he said, recalling a day when he had lost his father, uncle and four of his cousins.
”When they opened fire, I saw my father hit at the forehead, then a bullet hit me,” the youth recounted.
”I thought I was dead, then I saw them pour petrol on the people. The petrol finished near me and they went to refill. It was when they went for refilling of the petrol that I ran away,” he explained.
Another was a nine-year-old, not lucky enough to be shielded with other children he had his arm blown off and was forced to fake death to stay alive.
”I was shot in the marketplace,” he told the researchers.
”Someone fell on top of me. The soldiers checked to see if I was dead, then shot me three times. Then they were burning people.
”I got up and ran into the bush. A soldier saw me and shot at me. I stayed in the bush as if I was dead. The soldiers came and saw me. They kicked me three times on the leg and foot to check if I was still alive. I pretended I was dead.” -Sapa-AFP