Insurgency: UN Sec. Gen. calls for prosecution of aid workers’ killers
By Reporter
July 23, 2020- UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has called on the Nigerian government to take swift action to identifying and prosecuting the armed group responsible for the Wednesday killing of five aid workers in Borno.
Guterres made the call as he reacted to the incident in a statement issued by his spokesman, Mr Stéphane Dujarric, in New York on Thursday.
“The Secretary-General strongly condemns the killing, on Wednesday, of five civilians, including three aid workers, by an armed group in northern Borno, northeastern Nigeria.
“He expresses his deepest condolences to the families of the victims and to the government and people of Nigeria.
“He calls on the Nigerian authorities to spare no effort in identifying and swiftly bringing to justice the perpetrators of these killings,’’ he said.
Guterres reiterated that attacks against civilians, including aid workers, by a party in an armed conflict, were a violation of international humanitarian law.
The UN Chief stressed the need for international human rights law and international humanitarian law to be fully respected, including the obligation to protect civilians.
Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari has also condemned the gruesome killing of the aid workers by the Boko Haram insurgents, which came a month after the victims were kidnapped by the terrorist group.
The president, in a statement on Wednesday also assured that the perpetrators would be made to face the law.
He also pledged that the government would continue to do its best to completely wipe out “every remaining vestige’’ of Boko Haram from North East.
The Humanitarian Posts reports that the Boko Haram sect carried out the execution barely over a week after the Nigerian government granted amnesty to 602 repentant Boko Haram Members.
Most Nigerians are however not in support of the of the amnesty programme for the armed group who have killed scores of people and destroyed properties worth billions of naira.