President  Goodluck Jonathan

Tokunbo Adedoja

Amnesty International has raised the alarm that, "there is a vicious cycle of violence currently taking place in Nigeria", and that "the Nigerian people are trapped in the middle".

In a report titled, "Nigeria: Trapped in the Cycle of Violence", the group documents the atrocities of Boko Haram, and also catalogued what it called, "the serious human rights violations carried out by the security forces in response, including enforced disappearance, torture, extrajudicial executions, the torching of homes and detention without trial."

The 76-page report, released at an event held on Thursday at Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, specifically faulted the strategy employed to tackle the nation's security challenges noting that security operations targeting Boko Haram had been conducted with little regard for the rule of law or human rights.

*Details of  the story to follow…