During an Amnesty International Dialogue in Maiduguri, Borno State, concerns were raised by relatives and speakers regarding the missing and arrested individuals due to the Boko Haram insurgency over the past 13 years in the North-Eastern region of Nigeria. They called on the Federal Government and the military to provide accountability for the thousands of missing persons and those arrested during the conflict. The military was accused of making indiscriminate arrests of suspected insurgents between 2012 and 2017, with many being detained at facilities across the country, including Giwa Barracks in Maiduguri, Lagos, and Kainji in Niger State.
Amnesty International and the Allamin Foundation for Peace, a Maiduguri-based NGO, estimate that over 23,000 people were either missing or arrested by the Nigerian military during the insurgency. Out of this number, 1,886 have been released. The speakers at the dialogue, including family members of the missing, appealed to the government for transparency and information about the whereabouts and status of those arrested or missing. They questioned the government’s approach, pointing out that if repentant insurgents can be forgiven and reintegrated into society, the same consideration should be given to the missing and forcibly disappeared persons who were arrested due to the insurgency.
The Amnesty International Country Director called for the establishment of a mechanism to trace missing individuals and demanded the Nigerian government to prosecute detainees for the insurgency according to international law. The participants stressed that genuine peace and resolution of the conflict would not be achieved until all missing and forcibly disappeared persons are accounted for. However, efforts to reach the Director of Defence Information for a response were unsuccessful at the time of the report.