The EyeWitness to Atrocities project — established by the International Bar Association (IBA) and the International Committee on Nigeria (ICON) — has presented its findings on the crisis in Nigeria’s Middle Belt to the United Nations.
In a joint urgent appeal, the organisations detailed severe human rights violations, including breaches of the right to life as well as the rights to housing and food, which are essential components of an adequate standard of living.
EyeWitness and ICON called on the UN to take swift action, including initiating a fact-finding mission to Nigeria, as armed violence escalates and communities come under increasing threat.
They condemned the persistent clashes between herders and farmers and highlighted the recent abduction of over 300 children and staff from a Catholic boarding school in Niger State.
The incidents, the groups lament, highlight the insecurity affecting many Nigerian areas and underscore the importance of decisive action to improve security and accountability for all forms of violence.
The appeal was submitted to three UN-appointed Special Rapporteurs: on executions (Morris Tidball-Binz); on the right to food (Michael Fakhri); and on the right to housing (Balakrishnan Rajagopal).
It details how armed attackers have killed civilians, destroyed property, homes, crops, food reserves and storage structures, part of patterns of violence between herders and farmers in the Middle Belt.
”The attacks are leading to mass displacement, with women and children often most affected,” eyeWitness and ICON told the UN special rapporteurs.
The groups urged them to demand updates from Nigeria’s federal and state governments on their efforts to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators of violence, assists victims, and address the causes.
The current appeal builds on two previous submissions to the UN – the first was on extrajudicial killings in Nigeria (2022), and the second was before the 2024 Universal Periodic Review for Nigeria.
According to the eyeWitness and ICON, the troubling findings – based on videos, documenters’ notes, open-source material and witness accounts – indicate that the attacks were frequent and planned.
Since 2019, ICON and other partners in Nigeria have captured over 7,500 photos and videos, including those showing assailants often attacking villages when residents were asleep and unarmed.
“Some victims appear to have been killed by gunshots, and possibly cutting weapons, while others were burnt,” the organizations say. “The attackers often set villages ablaze.”
Kyle Abts, Director at ICON, noted that the documented human rights abuses and religious freedom ”ensure that evidence is preserved for justice and accountability.”
Carrie Bowker, Director at eyeWitness to Atrocities, said that for years, communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt region have faced deadly attacks with little to no accountability.
According to Bowker, the scale and brutality of the barbarity ”demand urgent, coordinated action to end impunity, support victims, and tackle the root causes of this violence.
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