At least two officers and up to 21 civilians were killed in
a clash between Nigerian security forces and members of the separatist
group the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in the city of Enugu,
Nigeria on August 23. While the final number of casualties and wounded
has not yet been confirmed, viral videos posted online show some victims
of the clash. IPOB has called for retaliation for what they call the
murder of their people, while police maintain that they only reacted
once IPOB members shot first.
The conflict began around
7am when police arrived at a meeting of the illegal IPOB group held at a
local school in Emene, a neighbourhood in the city of Enugu. The
resulting violence left at least two IPOB members dead on the scene and
many others injured, as shown by videos shared after the event.
A video posted on Twitter August 23 shows a man who was injured during the clash.
In
a video (below) taken during the conflict, gunshots can be heard and
people can be seen running away as a man says, “They are shooting our
people.” Several of those running away can be seen carrying sticks or
bats. As the person taking the video runs away from the sound of the
gunshots he says, “Two boys are down on the ground already.”
The Nigerian Police Shooting At Unarmed Biafrans In Enugu State.
No Rampaging Fulani Terrorist Armed With AK-47 Has Ever Been Arrested Or Shot Dead By @PoliceNG But Unarmed Biafrans Are Being Abducted, Tortured & Killed At Will. @UKinNigeria@USinNigeria@StateDept
Several gunshots can be heard in the background of a video posted on Twitter on August 23.
‘We started running for our lives’
IPOB member Victor Njemanze recounted the event to the FRANCE 24 Observers:
We
were in a meeting when some police and SARS [Nigerian police’s Special
Anti-Robbery Squad] came to our meeting and started banging on the gate.
When one of us went there to see who was banging on the gate, they
arrested him. Everybody started coming out to know what was happening.
All we saw was gunshots everywhere and we started running for our lives.
Then we find out that two people were down already. That was when we
started picking up sticks.
A screenshot from a video posted on Twitter on August 23 shows several people carrying sticks (Source: Video/Twitter).
Established
in 2009, the IPOB has reinvigorated another generation of people who
want to see Biafra as an independent state. The region attempted to
secede during the Biafran War of 1967. After less than three years and
many casualties, Biafra surrendered in 1970 and has been a part of
Nigeria ever since.
A map of the state of Biafra upon independence in 1967 (Credit: Wikipedia).
While
it has been classified by the Nigerian government as a terrorist
organisation since 2017, the IPOB continues to hold meetings and
training exercises. An IPOB spokesperson has said that their members were not armed and were meeting to hold a prayer, but police say
that the IPOB was holding a training exercise in “martial acts and
self-defence skills” and that machetes and wooden bats with nails
attached were found at the scene, none of which can be seen wielded by
IPOB members in videos of the event.
IPOB shot first, police say
Police report
that several of the first responders from the Department of Security
Services (DSS), Nigeria’s internal security and counter-terrorism unit,
were abducted by IPOB members, leading them to send in additional
forces. Additional police officers, DSS agents, and members of the Army
and Air Force responded in Emene around 8:30am when “suspected members
of the proscribed IPOB numbering over 500 had gone on rampage, blocking
and burning tyres on the road”.
Security forces maintain that
they did not shoot first, and only responded with gunfire after being
shot at by IPOB members. They went on to say that two people were killed
in the clash, and five others arrested. But according to IPOB, 21 of its members were killed, many others wounded, and 47 arrested.
‘A protracted conflict’
According
to Basil Ugorji, president and CEO of the International Center for
Ethno-Religious Mediation, a US-based non-profit organisation focused on
ethnic and religious conflict, the deployment of the military
represents an escalation of violence:
What
we saw in Enugu is the last in what I call a protracted conflict
between the IPOB and security forces in Nigeria. The police learned of a
meeting of IPOB members and when they responded they also called in the
other special forces. When you see the military enter, it is always
expected that you see some type of violence. This is what they are
trained for, they are trained for war.
The Nigerian military has used violent tactics on the IPOB before, with Amnesty International
recording many instances of military firing “live ammunition with
little or no warning to disperse crowds”. They say that at least 150 peaceful pro-Biafra protesters
were killed by Nigerian security forces from 2015 to 2016. In 2017, the
Nigerian army cracked down on the separatist group in Abia state, south
of Enugu, where they conducted raids characterised by humiliation and
violence.
>> Read on FRANCE 24 Observers: Clashes reignited between Biafra separatists and Nigerian army
Increased suspicion
Nnamdi
Kanu, leader of the IPOB movement, was arrested and detained in Lagos
by the Nigerian secret police in 2015 for over a year and half, his
secessionist efforts considered treason by the Nigerian government.
Today, Kanu’s location remains unknown since he fled Nigeria in 2017.
However he continues to broadcast from his station Radio Biafra,
registered in the UK. On August 23, he said in a broadcast that his
supporters must defend themselves if attacked by security forces unprovoked.
‘Their goal cannot be achieved without bloodshed’
Ugorji says that the police suspicion of the IPOB comes from its leader’s extreme rhetoric:
Since
2015, we have seen more instances of violence when the police come
across IPOB meetings. Although you can say that we haven't seen many
violent actions from the IPOB in the past, the rhetoric of their leader
is what causes suspicion from the police and the security forces. In the
past, he has asked online for contributions and for weapons [Editor’s
note: In 2015, Kanu said that IPOB needed guns and bullets
and that the Biafran secession would not be peaceful]. What this group
is aiming for is self-determination, a sovereign state of Biafra. The
Nigerian government will never let this happen willingly, so their goal
cannot be achieved without bloodshed, like in the war in 1967.
Some in Nigeria argue that the security response to the IPOB seems disproportionate to
its response to other violent conflicts in Nigeria. A series of attacks
perpetrated by herdsmen in Southern Kaduna in July that killed at least
53, for example, did not precipitate the deployment of special police
forces or the military.
IPOB’s spokesperson told Nigerian media Vanguard:
[Fulani
herdsmen and bandits] all gather in public without any military
interference. But as soon as Biafran youths congregate in any location
to pray, every Nigerian military formation including police, DSS, Army,
Air Force stationed in Biafraland will descend on them, firing
indiscriminately with the intention of killing as many innocent people
as possible.
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