Between January 2021 and June 2023, at least 1,844 people were killed in Nigeria’s South-East region, including over 400 in Imo state between 2019 and 2021, while hundreds were arbitrarily detained or forcibly disappeared.
This is according to a new report by Amnesty International –A Decade of Impunity: Attacks and Unlawful Killings in Southeast Nigeria–which exposes widespread human rights violations in Nigeria’s South-East, including killings, torture, and disappearances.
The report says these acts, committed between January 2021 and December 2024, were carried out by a mix of armed groups, vigilantes, state-linked militias, and criminal networks.
Amnesty International’s latest report draws from interviews with 100 people — including survivors, relatives of victims, civil society members, lawyers, and community leaders — as well as field research in four South-East cities between April and November 2023.
The findings expose a pattern of violent raids, with armed groups killing over 400 people in Imo state between January 2019 and December 2021, targeting residents, police stations, and vigilante offices.
These attackers often arrive unmasked, storming communities in daylight or under cover of night.
Their operations have sparked deadly reprisals, leaving thousands injured or displaced.
Witnesses told investigators that gunmen demand money at events like weddings and funerals.
Those who refuse face midnight assaults and the burning of their homes.
