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Nigeria President Vows War Crimes Probe | VOA

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<b>Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday said his government will leave "no stone unturned" investigating allegations of widespread torture, abuse and the killing of more than 8,000 prisoners during a military offensive against Boko Haram militants.</b></div>
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Buhari tweeted the announcement in response to Amnesty International's Wednesday report that drew from dozens of brutal videos and images showing abuses and killings apparently carried out by the Nigerian armed forces. The London-based rights group has named five senior officers who it says should face investigation.</div>
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In footage supplementing the 133-page report, prisoners are beaten to death while others are shot and thrown into open graves. Amnesty officials say the research draws from interviews with more than 400 victims, eyewitnesses and senior members of security forces.</div>
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Most of the prisoner deaths occurred during detention, says Amnesty’s Daniel Eyre.</div>
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“We have found that more than 7,000 people have died in military custody in northeast Nigeria in some of the most appalling conditions imaginable," he said. "They died of starvation, of thirst, as a result of lack of access to medical care. Many were tortured.”</div>
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Amnesty’s evidence also points to the widespread extrajudicial killing of prisoners. Some were hung on poles and suspended over fires; others were thrown into pits, had their throats cut, or were shot.</div>
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“More than 1,200 men and boys were unlawfully killed by the Nigerian military," he said. "That includes cases like what happened after the Giwa Barracks attack, where more than 640 recaptured detainees were executed in one day. And our report shows that the people at the top of the Nigerian military knew about these crimes and did not take action to stop them.”</div>
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The charges overshadowed Buhari's first trip abroad as president. He vow to "to promote the rule of law and deal with all cases of human rights abuses," during a stop in neighboring Niger to discuss Boko Haram and pledge a new strategy to fight the terrorists.</div>
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"Five years of the evil presence of this sect is enough," he told Niger officials on Wednesday, adding that although Nigerian soldiers have suffered many defeats, it is not the moment to criticize.</div>
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Furthermore, he said, "we are going to mobilize our best forces to attack this sect."</div>
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The Amnesty report names five senior officers who it says should face investigation.</div>
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On Thursday, Major General Chris Olukolade, Nigeria’s Director of Defense Information, accused Amnesty of trying to blackmail the military and said the five senior officers named in the report have "no reason" to indulge in the allegation made against them. </div>
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But evidence supporting the charges, says Eyre, is compelling.</div>
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“In fact, at one point they commissioned a report, which showed the appalling conditions in detention, the disease that was causing these deaths," he said. "And yet they did not take action to put an end to these deaths. And that is why we are saying they need to be investigated for their responsibility.”</div>
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The United States, which had strained ties with President Buhari’s predecessor Goodluck Jonathan, has signaled its readiness to expand military cooperation in the fight against Boko Haram. But analysts say Nigeria’s Western allies will want the allegations of war crimes to be fully investigated.</div>
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="400" scrolling="no" src="http://english.share.voanews.eu/flashembed.aspx?t=vid&id=2807857&w=640&h=363&skin=embeded" width="700"></iframe></div>
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 13px;"><b>WARNING, GRAPHIC CONTENT | VIDEO:</b></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 13px;"> Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari Tweeted that his government will leave "no stone unturned" investigating charges of widespread torture, abuse and killing of more than 8,000 prisoners during the military’s offensive against the terror group Boko Haram, according to a recent repory by Amnesty International. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.</span><br />
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Nigeria President Vows War Crimes Probe | VOA

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday said his government will leave "no stone unturned" investigating allegations ...

Telegraph UK Commends SaharaReporter’s Journalist For Taking On President Mugabe

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<b>Compared to the BBC’s John Simpson or CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Adeola Fayehun from Nigeria is not exactly a global name in the world of television reporting. This week, though, she made broadcasting history as she did something that all few African reporters have ever dared do: ask one their ageing dictators when the hell he is going to quit.</b></div>
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As this video from Ms Fayehun's TV channel shows, the feisty reportress ambushed Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe during a visit to Nigeria last weekend, asking the 91-year-old: "Are you going to step down?"</div>
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To the fury of his assorted security goons, she then refused to go away as they tried to push past her, repeating the onslaught like an African Jeremy Paxman. "Mr president, don't you think that it's time you step down sir, so you can rest? When will there be change in Zimbabwe, sir? Is there democracy in Zimbabwe?"</div>
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Footage of her grilling of Mr Mugabe has now become a viral hit on among internet users in Africa, for whom it's all too rare to see a leader publicly challenged in such fashion.</div>
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Yet while it may seem like nothing more than a piece of entertaining televisual theatre, take it from me, this kind of buttonholing takes quite a bit of guts. Waylaying any Head of State is a nerve wracking enough experience at the best of times, and when it's someone like Mugabe, there is every chance of a roughing up if he doesn't like the drift of the questions (remember the vicious beating that his bodyguards once gave to the gay rights activist Peter Tatchell).</div>
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Not only that, in many parts of Africa, reporters can also find themselves arrested if they pull stunts like the ones Ms Fayehun did, especially if their target is a visiting Head of State. It hopefully says much about press freedoms in Nigeria these days that the Nigerian police did not apparently see fit to intervene – and that they let reporters near Mr Mugabe in the first place.</div>
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Indeed, at the risk of perhaps reading too much into it, this little episode says much about the changing politics of Africa in the 21st century. On the one hand you have countries like Nigeria, which despite its many problems, has just completed yet another relatively peaceful election, where the outgoing president has handed power without a fuss to his successor, Muhammadu Buhari. And on the other, there are still Cold War era gerontocrats like Mugabe clinging to power in the likes of Zimbabwe.</div>
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Telegraph UK Commends SaharaReporter’s Journalist For Taking On President Mugabe

Compared to the BBC’s John Simpson or CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Adeola Fayehun from Nigeria is not exactly a global name in the world ...

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Nigeria President Vows War Crimes Probe | VOA

Telegraph UK Commends SaharaReporter’s Journalist For Taking On President Mugabe

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