The families of eight people killed by
Nigerian security forces hunting Boko
Haram insurgents in Abuja have been
awarded $200,000 compensation each, the
West African bloc ECOWAS said Wednesday.
Eleven people injured in the raid on an
uncompleted building in the Nigerian capital
on September 20, 2013, were also awarded
$150,000 each, it added.
A civil rights group brought the case against
the Nigerian government, army and
intelligence service to the ECOWAS
Community Court of Justice, which ruled on
the matter on Tuesday.
The Socio-Economic Rights and
Accountability Project (SERAP) argued the
shooting was a "flagrant abuse of their
fundamental human rights to life and
dignity" under international law.
Lawyers for Nigeria's government argued
that SERAP lacked the legal authority to
bring the case and that the security forces
acted appropriately to protect the life and
property of citizens.
But a panel of three judges disagreed, ruling
that while the facts of the shooting were
not in dispute, the security forces had a
duty to respect the right to life.
The court's decisions are binding on all
member states of the Economic Community
of West African States, final and not subject
to appeal.
Nigeria's main intelligence agency, the
Department of State Services, said after the
shooting that security agents were
searching for a weapons cache in a building
under construction.
They claimed they came under fire from
Boko Haram insurgents but the US Embassy
indicated in a security message the violence
involved squatters.
Several witnesses who were injured told
AFP later they were unarmed.
Abuja had been attacked before 2013,
notably in 2011 when the UN headquarters
was hit in a suicide bombing killing at least
25, and newspaper offices and a shopping
centre were attacked.
Boko Haram's Islamist insurgency has killed
at least 20,000 people since 2009 and left
more than 2.6 million others homeless,
spreading from northeast Nigeria into
neighbouring countries.
The military has regularly been accused of
human rights abuses in its response,
particularly against civilians and suspected
members of the Islamic State group
affiliate.
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