Amnesty International said Wednesday there was sufficient evidence for the International Criminal Court to probe senior Nigerian military officers for war crimes in the battle against Boko Haram.

The group stated the case against five senior officers in a new 133-page report based on hundreds of interviews, including with military sources, and using leaked defence ministry documents.

The allegations centre on thousands of people Amnesty claimed were extra-judically murdered by the security forces and its civilian vigilante allies, as well as crimes against those held in military custody.

Amnesty’s Secretary General Salil Shetty described the evidence of abuses collected as “sickening”.

“In the course of security operations against Boko Haram in north-east Nigeria, Nigerian military forces have extrajudicially executed more than 1,200 people; they have arbitrarily arrested at least 20,000 people, mostly young men and boys,” the report said.

Nigerian forces “have committed countless acts of torture; hundreds, if not thousands, of Nigerians have become victims of enforced disappearance; and at least 7,000 people have died in military detention as a result of starvation, extreme overcrowding and denial of medical assistance”, it added.

Amnesty said commanders based in the northeast “should be investigated for potential responsibility for war crimes of murder, enforced disappearances and torture”.

Watch the video of the atrocities here:
Top service chiefs in the capital Abuja “should be investigated for their potential command responsibility for crimes committed by their subordinates given that they knew or should have known about the commission of the crimes, and failed to take adequate action”.

The ICC in The Hague has previously opened a preliminary investigation into the Boko Haram conflict, which Amnesty said has killed at least 17,000 people since 2009.

The tribunal has however stated there was insufficient evidence tying Nigeria’s military to systematic and orchestrated atrocities targeting civilians.

But the report said: “Amnesty International believes that the evidence contained in this report and submitted separately to the (ICC) Office of the Prosecutor is sufficient to reopen this issue.”

The latest report includes new claims on specific acts of murder allegedly committed by Nigerian soldiers during the conflict but the general subject matter is not new.

But the Defence Headquarters in a statement on Wednesday denied the allegation, expressing disappointment in what it called gruesome allegations made by the Amnesty International against some senior officers of the Nigerian Armed Forces both serving and retired.

“It is unfortunate that all effort made in the allegation was geared towards continuation of blackmail against the military hierarchy in which the organisation had embarked upon as far back as the inception of military’s action against terrorist in the North East.

“The officers mentioned in the report have no reason, whatsoever, to indulge in the allegation made against them.

“It is unfortunate that the organisation just went out to gather names of specified senior officers, in a calculated attempt to rubbish their reputation as well as the image of the military,” the statement issued by military spokesman, Major General Chris Olukolade read.

The military said the action, no doubt, depicts more of a premeditated indictment aimed at discrediting the country for whatever purpose.