UNHCR: 35,000 persons killed by insurgency in north-east since 2009

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) says about 35,000 people have been killed by insurgency in the north-east region of  Nigeria.

The UN agency said the deaths were recorded from 2009 to August 2023.

NAN reports that Elsie Mills-Tetty, UNHCR’s head of the Adamawa office, spoke on Wednesday at a training for military personnel on human rights, humanitarian principles and civilian protection in Yola, the state capital.

The training was organised by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in collaboration with UNHCR.

Mills-Tetty, who was represented by Umar Abdullahi, assistant protection officer, said the figures were culled from the “Global Centre for Responsibility to Protect” report of August. 

The UN official said the insurgency has stunted the social development of the affected states and Nigeria at large.

She added human rights violations were also a concern, noting that the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) reported that it investigated a huge amount of complaints in 2022.

“Cumulatively, the commission received 2.314 complaints. Adamawa had 65,456 complaints, which is approximately three per cent of the total complaints from the 36 states of the federation,” Mills-Tetty said.

“The 2022 NHRC report also indicated that incidences of insurgency, banditry, kidnappings, farmers/herders clashes and attacks by gunmen continued to increase with the attendant number of internally displaced persons who face enormous human rights violations.”

In his address, Mr Tony Ojukwu, NHRC’s executive secretary, said the training was aimed at mainstreaming human rights into the counter-insurgency efforts of the Nigerian troops in the north-east.

Ojukwu, who was represented by Benedict Agu, his special assistant, said the war against insurgency was complicated by the fact that some militants blend into the society as innocent civilians.

 “To further sustain the gains made so far, the commission, in partnership with UNHCR, is here to train key military officers and men who are directly involved in the counter-insurgency operations in the north-east,” Ojukwu said

“The justification for this training cannot be overemphasised as the war against insurgency is complicated by the asymmetric nature of the conflict.

“The insurgents live within us and there is hardly a clearly drawn battle line between the insurgents and the civilian population,” he said.

He commended the Nigerian military and other law enforcement agencies for their efforts in containing the insurgency and urged the participants to implement the knowledge acquired from the training.