Officials of Amnesty international Lucy Freeman (L), Salil Shetty (C) and Steve Crawshaw speak during a news conference in Nigeria's capital Abuja November 1, 2012. Courtesy: REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde
Nigerian army kills 30 in militant bastion: witnesses
Nigerian troops shot dead at least 30 people during raids in the northeast city of Maiduguri, bastion of the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram, witnesses and hospital staff said on Friday.
Boko Haram says it wants to create an Islamic state in Nigeria and its fighters have killed hundreds in bomb and gun attacks targeting security forces, politicians and civilians since launching an uprising in 2009. The sect has become the top security threat to Africa's biggest energy-producing state.
According to Reuters soldiers from the Joint Task Force (JTF) raided several neighborhoods in Maiduguri late on Thursday and arrested or shot dead dozens of young men.
"More than 30 bodies were brought in by the JTF yesterday and most of them were young men," a nurse at one Maiduguri hospital Yagana Bukar . The military spokesman in Maiduguri did not respond to requests for comment.
In its report Thursday, Amnesty International condemned the increasingly brutal attacks carried out by Boko Haram since 2009, but said Nigeria's security forces "have perpetrated serious human rights violations" in their response.
"Hundreds of people accused of links to Boko Haram have been arbitrarily detained without charge or trial; others have been extrajudicially executed or subjected to enforced disappearance," the report said.
The report Also said the JTF had carried out executions in the streets and tortured people without charges ever being brought.
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