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An umbrella organisation of Igbos, Nigeria's third largest ethnic group, has called for details of atrocities allegedly committed against the group
between 1966 and 1970, when it sought unsuccessfully to form an independent
state, the Republic of Biafra.
Ohaneze Ndigbo, a cultural organisation, said in a press statement on Monday that it wanted the details by 28 February to build its case for reparations worth 8 trillion naira (US $72.26 billion) before the Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission (HRVIC), set up by President Olusegun Obasanjo to redress past wrongs.
Of particular interest, the body said, was information on "waves of pogroms,
genocide, refugee problems, bombing and shooting on civilian targets,
maltreatment of war prisoners, hunger as an instrument of war and rapes
allegedly committed before and during the war".
HRVIC, headed by Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, has a mandate to investigate
human rights violations from January 1966, when the military first took
power in a coup, to 29 May 1999, when Obasanjo's inauguration ended 15 years
of military rule.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions