LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) – Nigerian soldiers fired on unarmed Shiite children with no provocation before unjustified raids that killed hundreds of the minority group in the West African nation, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.
The charges come as the guardian of Nigeria’s estimated 80 million-plus Muslims, Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar of Sokoto, warned the government against actions that could further radicalize Muslims in a country that already has lost 20,000 lives to the Boko Haram Islamic uprising.
Human Rights Watch said it doubts the Nigerian military’s version that raids over three days on three Shiite locations in northern Zaria town followed an attempted assassination of the army chief.
Nigeria’s military said the raids Dec. 12 through Dec. 14 came after Shiites tried to block the convoy of Gen. Tukur Buratai.
“It is almost impossible to see how a roadblock by angry young men could justify the killings of hundreds of people. At best it was a brutal overreaction and at worst it was a planned attack on the minority Shia group,” said the Africa director of Human Rights Watch, Daniel Bekele.