Boko Haram Attacks Bombed Nigerian Refugee Camp
Boko Haram militants attacked a refugee camp that had been bombed by the Nigerian air force earlier this week, further complicating efforts to help scores of wounded.
More than 100 fighters attacked Rann in northeast Nigeria shortly after a Medecins sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders rescue helicopter evacuated 90 wounded from the camp, witnesses told the Associated Press. Soldiers repelled the attack after several hours. The death toll was not yet clear.
MSF said at least 90 people were killed in Tuesday’s airstrikes, although local residents estimate the death toll reached 170. More than 100 people were wounded, with many in a critical condition.
Nigeria’s military said the airstrikes were intended to target militants and pledged to investigate the incident.
Human Rights Watch said satellite imagery of Rann indicated that at least two sites were bombed by the Nigerian military, both of them densely populated areas, destroying 35 structures.
“The tents are easily visible from the air, making it difficult to understand how an accident of this nature could have occurred,” the group said. “The presence of what appears to be a large Nigerian military compound on the edge of town, 100m [325ft] from one of the impact sites, raises further questions.”
United Nations officials have called on Nigeria to ensure the safety of other displaced communities in the area. “A full accounting has to take place so that the causes are known and measures can be put in place to ensure this never happens again,” U.N. refugees chief Filippo Grandi said.
Italian Smuggler Case Highlights Migrant Abuse in Libya
An Italian legal case against a suspected Somali smuggler operating in Libya has exposed harrowing allegations of abuse of migrants in the chaotic north African country.
Osman Matammud, 22, from Mogadishu, was arrested in Milan last September when fellow Somalis recognized him as their former captor and tried to lynch him at a migrant center.
Prosecutors say around 10 people have testified that Matammud oversaw the abuse of migrants imprisoned in an informal camp in Libya’s Bani Walid in an attempt to extort more money for their journey to Europe.
Several women, including teenage girls, said Matammud repeatedly raped them in the camp. Others said he tortured them by setting light to plastic bags on their backs. He is charged with four murders, multiple rapes and kidnapping.
“In a career of 40 years I have never seen such a horror and it must be imagined that what occurred at Bani Walid takes place in all the camps,” said Milan’s prosecutor Ilda Boccassini.
HRW: Croatia Pushing Asylum Seekers Back To Serbia
Croatian police have violently forced asylum seekers back to Serbia, according to Human Rights Watch.
The group interviewed 10 Afghans, including two unaccompanied children, who said they had been refused the right to claim asylum in Croatia and pushed back over the border since last November. They all said police seized their possessions and nine of them described being beaten or kicked by the officers.
“Accounts of Croatia’s shocking and abusive treatment of asylum seekers at its border are unworthy of a European Union state,” said Human Rights Watch researcher Lydia Gall.
Recommended Reads:
- IRIN News: Climate Change and Mass Migration: A Growing Threat to Global Security
- Europe Now: Anatomy of a Refugee Wave: Forced Migration on the Balkan Route as Two Processes
- Middle East Institute: Burden or Boon? Turkey’s Tactical Treatment of the Syrian Refugee Crisis
- The New Yorker: The Deportees Taking Our Calls
- World Economic Forum: Connectivity Is Not a Luxury for Refugees; It Is a Lifeline