Commission of inquiry accuses Nigerien soldiers of executing civilians

Nigerien soldiers on patrol, in October 2019. ZOHRA BENSEMRA / REUTERS
Soldiers from Niger engaged in the fight against the jihadists are accused of having murdered dozens of civilians in the Tillabéri region, in the west of the country, Abdoulaye Seydou, head of a non-governmental organization, announced Friday (September 4th) ( NGO) which participated in an investigation by the National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH), a public body made up of representatives of the government, Parliament, NGOs, unions and lawyers.
“There were indeed executions of unarmed civilians, and the mission discovered at least 71 people who were killed in six mass graves,” Seydou said. “It is elements of the Defense and Security Forces (FDS) which are responsible for these summary and extrajudicial executions. However, “we do not have any clues or elements that can establish the responsibility of the military as an institution and of the military hierarchy,” he noted.

Six mass graves

“More than 70 various witnesses were heard,” he said. The investigation, which took place “over a period of three months, from May 20 to July 6, 2020”, was carried out after “allegations of disappearances of 102 people”, according to the CNDH. “[In] all six mass graves (…) the bodies all had their hands tied behind their backs, the turban on their necks with bullet holes. The medical examiner’s reports are there, ”Alichina Amadou Koulguéni, secretary general of the National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH), told reporters.
“Numbered cartridge cases that can be traced” were found on the spot by investigators. They “interviewed administrative authorities, customary authorities, municipal authorities, military authorities as well as relatives of victims and survivors”, he noted.
“It was not all the constituted bodies of the army that did that, it was a few small groups,” Alichina Amadou Koulguéni also added. The investigation report, “produced in a single copy”, was handed over at the end of July to the president, Mahamadou Issoufou, who “transferred it to the defense ministry”, who “poured it into an instruction. judicial, ”said Mr. Seydou.
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Disappearance of nearly 200 people in the Sahel

At the beginning of April, the United Nations (UN) Mission in Mali (Minusma) denounced the “proliferation” of misdeeds attributed to national armies in the Sahel. The UN counted 101 extrajudicial executions by the Malian army between January and March, and around thirty others by the Nigerien army on Malian soil.
In June, Amnesty International accused soldiers from three Sahelian countries engaged in the fight against jihadists of the disappearance of nearly 200 people in a few months, according to the NGO. In Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, “soldiers spread terror and killings in villages under the cover of counterterrorism operations,” the human rights organization wrote in a document.
Niger had declared itself “outraged” by the UN accusations of extrajudicial killings of civilians by its army in Mali and said it was ready to accept an “international investigation”, according to a letter from the Nigerien government to the Nigerien government. ‘UN.
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The World with AFP