ABUJA – Nigerian security forces clashed with protesters during mass demonstrations over the country's economic crisis, leaving at least nine people dead, a rights group said Friday. One police officer was killed as the military threatened to intervene to quell any violence.
Meanwhile, four people were killed and 34 injured Thursday when a bomb went off in a crowd of protesters in the conflict-hit northeastern state of Borno, authorities said.
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Police continued to fire tear gas at protesters in various locations, including the capital of Abuja, as they regrouped on Friday.
The military will also intervene if the looting and destruction of public properties witnessed on Thursday continued, Nigeria’s defense chief Gen. Christopher Musa said. “We will not fold our arms and allow this country to be destroyed,” Musa told reporters in Abuja.
More than 400 protesters had been arrested as of Friday, the Nigerian police said. Curfews were imposed in five northern states after the looting of government and public properties, but protesters defied the curfews in some places, resulting in arrests and clashes with police.
National police chief Kayode Egbetokun said Thursday night that the police are on red alert and may seek the help of the military.
Amnesty International’s Nigeria director Isa Sanusi said in an interview that the group independently verified deaths that were reported by witnesses, families of the victims, and lawyers.
The protests were mainly over food shortages and accusations of misgovernment and corruption in Africa’s most populous country. Nigeria’s public officials are among the best paid in Africa, a stark contrast in a country that has some of the world’s poorest and hungriest people despite being one of the continent’s top oil producers.
The cost-of-living crisis — the worst in a generation — is fueled by surging inflation that is at a 28-year high and the government’s economic policies that have pushed the local currency to record low against the dollar.
Carrying placards, bells, tree branches and Nigeria’s green-and-white flag, the mostly young protesters chanted songs as they listed their demands, including the reinstatement of gas and electricity subsidies that were canceled as part of an economic reform effort.
Violence and looting were concentrated in Nigeria's northern states, which are among the hardest hit by hunger and insecurity. Dozens of protesters were seen running with looted goods including furniture and gallons of cooking oil.
Egbetokun, the police chief, said officers “aimed at ensuring peaceful conduct." But, he added “regrettably, events in some major cities today showed that what was being instigated was mass uprising and looting, not protest.”
The police chief’s claim was disputed by rights groups and activists. “Our findings so far show that security personnel at the locations where lives were lost deliberately used tactics designed to kill,” Sanusi said.
Authorities feared the protests, which have been gathering momentum on social media, could be a replay of the deadly 2020 demonstrations against police brutality in this West African nation, or as a wave of violence similar to last month’s chaotic tax hike protests in Kenya.
However, the threats that emerged as the protests turned violent in some places did “not require that level of response” from police officers, said Anietie Ewang, a Nigerian researcher with Human Rights Watch.