Udora Orizu in Abuja
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has sent an open letter to the UN Security Council and its members urging them to treat the failure of Nigerian authorities to prevent and prosecute attacks on students, and to end the growing insecurity in the country as a fundamental breach of the UN Charter and Nigeria’s international human rights obligations.
In the letter dated 26 February and signed by SERAP deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare, the organization said attacks on schools and abductions of students were a violation of children’s rights.
SERAP said these abductions and attacks also undermine the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and if not urgently prevented and combatted, may rise to the level of threat to international peace and security.
The letter, read in part, “According to our information, some armed men today abducted over 300 schoolgirls at Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe in the Talata-Mafara Local Government Area of Zamfara State. The armed men arrived in the school around 1am with Hilux vehicles and motorcycles and abducted the students.”
”SERAP is concerned that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari is failing to uphold its responsibility to protect Nigerian students from increasing abductions, and attacks on other people by armed men, and if not urgently addressed these abductions and attacks may constitute threat to regional peace and security, and by extension, international peace and security.”
“Ensuring the release of the students and holding perpetrators accountable will contribute to ending impunity. A UN Security Council resolution would help to put pressure on the Nigerian authorities to take urgent and concrete measures to end the abductions of students, secure their safety and promote the security and safety of all Nigerians. The Security Council must act now to protect Nigerian students and other citizens, if the Council is not to be accused of failing the people of Nigeria.”
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