The Global Rights, an international human rights organisation, has disclosed that at least 4,556 persons died in “mass atrocities” in Nigeria in the year 2020.
The group made the disclosure on Monday in its report released in Abuja- the aforesaid figure represents an increase of 1,368, a “glaring spike of almost 43 per cent” in the number of casualties compared to the 3,188 recorded in 2019.
It attributed the tracked deaths to “violent attacks, clashes, terrorism, kidnappings, and extrajudicial killings” during the period under review.
The report stated that Nigeria “continued to battle with multiple forms of organised crimes manifested in a clime of insecurity” in addition to “endemic poverty, a floundering economy, mass unemployment, and the fresh layer of crisis Covid19 brought to the country.”
“Our tracking for the year informs that 4,556 lives were lost on the altar of mass violence and killings for #2020 grossly eclipsing 3188 deaths reported in 2019.
“These aren’t just numbers, they are people/citizen’s whose government has utterly failed to protect and serve,” Global Rights Nigeria stated in a post on its Facebook wall on Monday.
The report came amid recent mass kidnapping, and community raids by bandits in Niger and Zamfara States and other parts of the country.
Giving a summary of the report on Monday, Abiodun Baiyewu, executive director of Global Rights, charged the government to strengthen Nigeria’s state institutions and governance structures, ensure equality before the law, respect the rule of law, end impunity, protect civic right and freedom, and invest in human capital development.
According to the orgainsation, of the 4,556 deaths, 3,858 were said to be civilians, while 698 were state security agents.
