LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Amnesty International has opened an office in Nigeria, promising to investigate allegations of abuse including oil pollution, forced evictions and charges of military killings of civilians in the fight against Boko Haram Islamic extremists.
The director of the office which opened Tuesday, veteran Nigerian career diplomat M.K. Ibrahim, said, “From the relatives of the thousands killed and missing in northeast Nigeria to the thousands of villagers in the Niger Delta who cannot plant crops or drink clean water because of oil pollution, Amnesty International will stand in solidarity with all the people in Nigeria who face human rights violations and abuses.”
Ibrahim told the AP that Nigeria’s government invited Amnesty into the country after its report accusing Nigeria’s military of possible war crimes in the alleged killings of 800 civilians.
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