ABUJA: Nigerian police said on Saturday they had come under intense gunfire a day earlier in a neighborhood of the capital, Abuja, during clashes between security forces and Shiite Muslim protesters that led to several reported deaths.
Nigeria has a history of deadly clashes between security forces and members of the banned Shiite Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), which advocates for the peaceful establishment of an Islamic state in Africa’s most populous nation.
On Friday, dozens of the group’s members marched in solidarity with Palestine, but violence broke out when they clashed with soldiers and police.
Critics say Nigerian security forces have increasingly resorted to using force, including live ammunition, to quell protests, and that this could radicalize groups like IMN.
Police in a statement on Saturday accused the protesters of “a violent assault” on security personnel armed with firearms and other lethal weapons in Abuja’s Wuse 2 neighborhood.
“Police and security personnel encountered intense gunfire from the attackers, resulting in the serious injury of three security operatives,” said Josephine Adeh, police spokesperson for Abuja.
One member of the security forces had died and 19 suspects had been arrested, he said.
Videos circulating on social media platform X showed protesters waving a Palestinian flag and throwing stones at an army vehicle, followed by the sound of gunfire.
Sidi Munir Sokoto, a senior IMN member blamed the military for the violence, saying the protest was peaceful. He put the death toll at five.
“This was the military. The (military) leadership must explain why this happened,” Sokoto said.
An army spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Isa Sanusi, head of Amnesty International Nigeria, called for an impartial investigation.
“The army used live ammunition on the protesters. It appears they approach IMN protesters always with the intent to kill,” Sanusi told Reuters, also putting the death toll at five.
Shiite protesters clash with Nigerian military, police in Abuja
https://arab.news/59qky
Shiite protesters clash with Nigerian military, police in Abuja
- Critics say Nigerian security forces have increasingly resorted to using force
- Police in a statement on Saturday accused the protesters of “a violent assault” on security personnel
UN chief calls on Israel to reverse NGOs ban in Gaza
- In November, authorities in Gaza said more than 70,000 people had been killed there since the war broke out
- Israel on Thursday suspended 37 foreign humanitarian organizations from accessing the Gaza Strip after they had refused to share lists of their Palestinian employees with government officials
UNITED NATIONS, United States: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Friday for Israel to end a ban on humanitarian agencies that provided aid in Gaza, saying he was “deeply concerned” at the development.
Guterres “calls for this measure to be reversed, stressing that international non-governmental organizations are indispensable to life-saving humanitarian work and that the suspension risks undermining the fragile progress made during the ceasefire,” his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
“This recent action will further exacerbate the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians,” he added.
Israel on Thursday suspended 37 foreign humanitarian organizations from accessing the Gaza Strip after they had refused to share lists of their Palestinian employees with government officials.
The ban includes Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which has 1,200 staff members in the Palestinian territories — the majority of whom are in Gaza.
NGOs included in the ban have been ordered to cease their operations by March 1.
Several NGOS have said the requirements contravene international humanitarian law or endanger their independence.
Israel says the new regulation aims to prevent bodies it accuses of supporting terrorism from operating in the Palestinian territories.
On Thursday, 18 Israel-based left-wing NGOs denounced the decision to ban their international peers, saying “the new registration framework violates core humanitarian principles of independence and neutrality.”
A fragile ceasefire has been in place since October, following a deadly war waged by Israel in response to Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
In November, authorities in Gaza said more than 70,000 people had been killed there since the war broke out.
Nearly 80 percent of buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged by the war, according to UN data, leaving infrastructure decimated.
About 1.5 million of Gaza’s more than two million residents have lost their homes, said Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza.
