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Amnesty to Nigeria: End torture

September 18, 2014

The rights group Amnesty International has called on the Nigerian government to end the use of torture as part of policing. Amnesty alleges that the practice has become routine and has called for it to be criminalized.

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Nigeria Folteropfer Archiv 2013
Image: Amnesty International

Amnesty strongly condemned Nigeria's torture record, claiming it use went far beyond the interrogation of terrorist suspects.

"'Welcome to Hell Fire: Torture and Other Ill-treatment in Nigeria," a report released on Thursday, documents the testimonies of hundreds of victims over the past 10 years.

"This goes far beyond the appalling torture and killing of suspected Boko Haram members," Amnesty's research and advocacy director, Netsanet Belay, said in a statement.

"Across the country, the scope and severity of torture inflicted on Nigeria's women, men and children by the authorities supposed to protect them is shocking even to the most hardened human rights observer," Belay said.

Nigeria has long been accused of institutionalized abuses and was named in a report earlier this year as one of the five countries worldwide where routine torture was of particular concern. In its statement, Amnesty called for the practice - which is not an offense despite Nigeria's being a signatory of seven regional and global agreements banning it - to be criminalized.

In 2012, Nigeria's former police chief admitted that the force had detained people and carried out extrajudicial killings, with anti-robbery squads becoming "killer teams."

Nigeria Sicherheitskräfte Boko Haram
Many police stations are thought to have their own unofficial officers in charge of tortureImage: Reuters

Choked, starved, beaten

Amnesty reported that it had identified 12 regularly used methods of torture, which included beating, choking, starvation and suffocation. Detainees were also suspended upside down by their feet and made to sit on sharp objects.

The group reported that some police stations had an informal office in charge of torture and that electric shocks, sexual violence and the extraction of teeth.

About 500 allegations of torture were recorded in interviews with victims, their families, lawyers and human rights representatives.

Amnesty had previously alleged abuses by the military against suspected Boko Haram members, detained in what the organization described as "inhumane conditions."

Children under 18 were among those detained, with many picked up on what Amnesty claimed was flimsy evidence.

rc/mkg (AFP, dpa)