Over 7,000 Nigerians Killed In One Year -Report

The  Nigeria Security Tracker (NST) says Violent activities in Nigeria have resulted in the death of 7,253 Nigerians between June 2018 and May 2019.

This was contained in a report released by the organization.

According to the report, Nigeria Security Tracker (NST), a project of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Africa program, documents and maps violence in Nigeria that is motivated by political, economic, or social grievances. Different groups in Nigeria resort to violence

It said, these figures,  include those killed by insurgent groups like Boko Haram in the northern part of the country, herdsmen crisis, and extra-judicial activities by the military.

It said  Borno and Zamfara recorded the highest number of killings contributing to 49 per cent of the total deaths within the last one year.

Borno recorded 2,384 killings while 1,157 people were killed by different violent activities in Zamfara.

Other states that made up the top 10 states of death from violent activities include Kaduna, 540; Benue, 330; Adamawa, 303; Yobe, 264; Taraba, 176; Plateau, 166; Rivers, 160 and Katsina with 127 deaths.

It said the least affected states are Kebbi, 3; Kwara and Jigawa, 4; Osun, 8; Kano and Bauchi, 10; Gombe, Oyo and Enugu, 11 and Abia, 12;

The report also indicated  that extrajudicial killings  by state actors led to the most killings in the country with 1,545 deaths, while 1,042 Nigerians were killed by Boko Haram sects.

It similarly explained that , communal crisis and clash between herdsmen and farmers resulted in killings of 1,178 Nigerians while 1,230 deaths resulted from other factors.

The organization,  Nigeria Security Tracker (NST) said it tracks violence that is both causal and symptomatic of Nigeria’s political instability and citizen alienation.

According to it, “Relying on press reports of violence presents methodological limitations. There is a dearth of accurate reporting across certain regions, death tolls are imprecise, and accounts of incidents vary. There is the potential for political manipulation of media. Given these limitations, the NST makes every effort to collect information from multiple sources.’’