Nineteen protestors are now believed to have been killed with dozens more wounded after security forces opened fired using live ammunition on a peaceful pro-Palestine march in Abuja.
Footage obtained from the scene shows protestors running for cover as the sound of bullets rings out around them. Another video shows soldiers dragging the lifeless body of a civilian into a waiting car.
Authorities are reported to have taken away the bodies of fourteen victims to an undisclosed location.
Earlier today, IHRC had expressed concerns over a possible bloodbath after it was revealed that authorities were manufacturing a pretext to attack some of the many annual Al-Quds Day demonstrations taking place across the country today.
A leaked internal communique from the Office of the National Security Adviser that has been seen by IHRC advises of the need to “prevent a breach of the peace”, something that in recent years has been used as a justification by security forces to violently attack demonstrators.
The communique, dated March 26, also describes the demonstrators as inherently violent, potentially seeking to attack US and Israeli interests in the country.
It appeared that the misrepresentation of the overwhelmingly peaceful marches in support of the beleaguered Palestinian people was laying the ground for another police attack on protestors.
In 2023 at least one person died and many more were injured after police opened fire on the Al-Quds Day march in Abuja. The most savage attack on protestors occurred in July 2014 when police opened fire on a rally in Zaria, northern Nigeria, killing 34 people.
The Al-Quds Day parade takes place every year on the last Friday of Ramadan in towns and cities all over Nigeria, and indeed the Muslim world, to show solidarity with the oppressed people of Palestine.
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IHRC is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.
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