$346m US-Nigeria arms deal sets rights groups on edge

RIGHTS groups are questioning a multimillion-dollar arms sale by the US to Nigeria as security forces in the west African nation continue to be accused of killing civilians with impunity.

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Last week, the State Department approved the possible sale of $346 million (R6.1 billion) in weapons, including bombs, rockets and munitions, to Nigeria, which is battling jihadist militants in the northeast, armed “bandit” gangs in the northwest and separatists in the southeast.

Civilians have often been caught in the crossfire. In May, the Nigerian air force bombed a local self-defence group in Zamfara state, mistaking them for bandits, residents said.

The State Department’s own annual human rights report on Nigeria, released the same week it approved the weapons sale, warned of air strikes killing civilians and torture of detainees.

The sale announcement was “conspicuously silent on the Nigerian military’s record of serious human rights abuses and on what safeguards, if any, will be implemented”, Anietie Ewang, Nigeria researcher for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

She added that the US Congress, which had the authority to pause such sales, “really needs to ask these tough questions that the State Department is dancing around”.