Lagos, July 21: More than 700 died last November in clashes in the Nigerian city of Jos, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Monday as it urged the prosecution of members of security forces it accused of “arbitrary killings.”
“Muslim and Christian authorities have collectively documented the deaths of more than 700 people in the two days of violence… The Nigerian police and military were implicated in more than 130 arbitrary killings,” HRW said in a submission to the Plateau State Judicial Commission of Inquiry on the crisis.
The HRW testified before the commission in Jos on Monday, it said in a statement.
“At least 130 men were killed by members of the very institutions charged with protecting them,” Corinne Dufka, a senior HRW researcher, told the commission, according to the statement.
The commission “should investigate and call for the prosecution of members of the security forces responsible for the alleged killing of more than 130 people in November 2008,” the statement said.
The November 28 to 29 clashes which started as political feud over a November 27 local election, later degenerated into bloody confrontation between Muslims and Christians in Jos, capital of Plateau State.
—Agencies