Amnesty International has renewed calls for investigations into alleged killings, disappearances, torture and unlawful detention in Nigeria’s South East after presenting two reports documenting abuses in the region.
The organization said it recorded at least 1,844 deaths between 2021 and the middle of 2023 involving non state armed groups, state backed security structures and security operations.
The reports were presented again in Umuahia and focused on violence across the South East and alleged abuses at the police Anti Kidnapping Unit in Owerri, commonly known as Tiger Base.
Amnesty said it had documented allegations of arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, extortion, torture and deaths in custody.
The organization said it interviewed 23 former detainees, including 14 women, concerning conditions at Tiger Base.
Three of those interviewed later reportedly died following detention, according to Amnesty.
The organization also linked insecurity in the region to displacement, disrupted education, loss of livelihoods and restrictions on movement associated with sit at home orders.
Amnesty called for independent investigations, prosecution where evidence supported criminal responsibility, reparations for victims and stronger accountability from state and federal authorities.
Several relatives of missing persons gave emotional testimony at the event.
They alleged that husbands, sons and other family members had been arrested or taken by security personnel and had not been seen again.
Those accounts remain allegations requiring investigation and were not independently established in the source material.
One elderly man alleged that two of his sons were arrested by soldiers, tortured and later killed.
Another participant claimed that dozens of bodies of young men suspected of links to the Indigenous People of Biafra had been found at a mortuary.
Abia State officials said the government had zero tolerance for rights abuses and referred complaints to the Citizens’ Rights Department.
A representative cited a case in which a detained family was rescued after intervention.
Human rights advocates at the event called for legal representation, stronger investigation of disappearances and an end to impunity.
Amnesty said the central demand was that people arrested by security agencies should either be lawfully charged and brought before a court or released, while unresolved disappearance and death allegations should be independently investigated.
