16/12/2025
WOMEN AND CHILDREN’S RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN THE ZARIA 2015 MASSACRE AND THE DECADE OF JUSTICE DENIED
By
I. H. Mshelgaru
1.0 INTRODUCTION:
In remembrance of the gruesome massacre and genocide perpetrated by the Nigerian Army under General Tukur Yusuf Buratai on the Islamic Movement in Zaria, a decade ago under the direct command of the former president, General Muhammadu Buhari, I chose to focus on violations of women and children’s rights in the incident, a topic I found topical and important at this instant, for the facts that women and children;
(i) Constitute major portion of every society in terms of population, so much that when their rights are violated the right of the society equally violated
(ii) Are the weakest element of the society to which more protection and support efforts need be directed
(iii) Have rights more enticing to be violated both in crisis and peace time. That makes, them more susceptible and easier to be violated with less consequences
(iv) The two are more closely linked to one another than to the other elements of the society. What affects one, affects the other and they also have shared interests, needs, benefits and are mutually depended on each other; when one of them suffers the other proportionately suffers. For this reason, their rights be managed together as demanded in this discussion for better results.
(v) Women and children are the most essential and relevant sector of any society. They greatly determine the status and development of societies; that is to say, the better the state of their well being, the better and progressive is the present and the future of a society and vice versa. They are determinant factor for future survival or destruction of a society.
It is against this background that I want to examine whether or not their rights to life, respect, dignity, privacy and so on were violated during the general Buhari’s 2015 clampdown on the Islamic Movement in Zaria and if rights violation is confirmed, whether or not justice has been served to date or not.
It was actually in 2015 when General Buhari ordered a major clampdown on Islamic Movement in Zaria, Kaduna State using the Nigerian Army. What later turned out to be an on slaughter, apparently started at noon of 12th December, when a multiple of Nigerian Army troops heavily armed to the teeth went and took battle positions around Hussainiyya Bakiyatullah, situated along Zaria to Sokoto road.
That day was a day of an annual transition period from the famous annual Ashura mourning mood and celebration mood of the festive birthday of the Holy Prophet (SAW) and the venues for the national event was the same Hussainiyya Bakiyatullah, as usual. The venue was agog and large numbers of people: men, women, children and the aged were all present in huge numbers with more trooping in from far and near. Similar volumes of population had arrived Zaria and had lodged at Darur Rahmah, Gyellesu, and Fudiya Islamic center waiting for the time when the occasion would kickoff, usually after Asir prayers.
Thereafter, surprising unusual things started unfolding when the Army continued amassing troops upon troops and military hardware in strange manners until the entire surrounding of the venue of the program was besieged and all routes leading to it were blocked and controlled by fiercely looking armed soldiers. Nobody knew what the Army was up to at that time but the harassments were much and hash.
Hinging on fabricated claims of road blocking provocation for the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), general Tukur Yusuf Buratai, who didn’t actually ply that road and direction on that day and within that period, the Army indiscriminately opened fire, massacring scores of unarmed civilian event attendees and seized their bodies. It seemed the Army didn’t get what it wanted and the undisclosed mission was unaccomplished with the adjournment of the event and lack of willingness to avenge. The Army swiftly moved to occupy and lay siege to Sheikh Zakzaky’s home in Gyellesu and Darur Rahmah in Dambo, several kilometers away from the point of the fabricated skirmishes, where thousands of even other attendees had taken shelter. Yet, even then, the writings on the walls regarding their motive weren’t so clear because all their actions were orchestrated unprovoked, and so was extremely difficult to extrapolate.
The deeper the dusk went by; the more troops were added and the more the nozzles were tightened on these three mentioned areas. The glimpses depicted, they meant bigger business than in the past, the war readiness was big and heightening, they were blood thirsty and the stern-looking soldiers intended to massacre everybody.
Some moments after, the writings started manifesting more legible, one could easily decipher them. It was discovered that the Army wasn’t acting alone, it was taking orders, orders from above, and the ultimate above that day had dropped closer with the commander in chief, General Muhammadu Buhari in Kaduna, the state capital, just some 80km away, in an emergency forward operation base (FOB) created for that purpose to remotely coordinate, direct, monitor and evaluate progress as the massacre went on in Zaria to successful ends. The commander in chief, General Buhari headed the FOB himself flanged by the COAS, General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, the Kaduna State Governor, Nasiru Ahmed El Rufai and some essential blood thirsty senior politicians.
They had perfected the brutal massacre strategies and that day was the D-day, every Shiite must die and every Shiite property must varnish in this long-planned operation monikered: “Ba shia ba kayan shia”; meaning, ‘spare no shiite nor shiite properties’ slogan.
With that slogan behind the minds and actions of every soldier, the Army orchestrated a large-scale genocidal operation on a very soft target, mainly comprising women and children, that was never closely less than anything like it in the genocide history of this country according to critiques; all intended to end the peaceful Mass Movement, the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, as was later understood.
2.0 PLANNED GENOCIDE IN THE UN DESIGNATED GENOCIDE PREVENTION WEEK:
The aim of that operation was to completely decimate the Islamic Movement, a direct follow up to similar several failed attempts made in the past. This time it was resolved to be ones for all in a merciless large scale massacre fashion because the 2009 attempted air bombing of Sheikh Zakzaky’s resident to massacre everybody, including his aged mother, family, relatives and visitors was not successful. Cruel and violent behavior could be seen in the body languages of the field officers who were privy to the aim and details of the operation. It looked like they were out of their sense, high on drugs.
3.0 REASONS FOR GOVERNMENTS’ FANATISM TOWARDS THE ISLAMIC MOVEMENT
The operation “Ba shia ba kayan shia” was just one out of many others attempts carried out on the Islamic Movement and it was quite true that successive regimes had attempted annihilating the Islamic Movement since its declaration in 1980 when the leader of the movement publicly declared non partisanship to the system running the affairs of the country and in its place initiated a divine one instead. The Nigerian regimes whether military or civil, headed by Muslim or non-Muslim, controlled by Northerners or otherwise, had viewed the Movement in same bad light and made various efforts to wipe it out. These unconnected incomprehensible scenarios made people wonder why it should be so.
The reason for that is not farfetched, but Governments overtime hid the real motives of their disdain with the Movement and therefore always gave fake and unsubstantiated claims, like, the movement was a threat to national security and that they were trying to provide protection to the people by massacring foreign ‘Shiites’ and so on. A catchword that even non-Muslim security officers had used to justify their atrocities on civilians by labeling them victims Shiites; that they only killed Shiites and no one else and with that a murder crime case would be closed. That was because being a Shiite to Nigerian regimes is as a Palestinian to the Zionist Israeli occupation regime on Palestinian land.
However, the reason from the perspectives of the Resistance Movement is nothing than Ideological rivalry; Islamic ideology of the Movement versus the Western ideology that is wrecking the country. It is a rancor between,
(i) Islamic ideology of self determination and liberation and the western imperialism and hegemony dominating the country
(ii) Islamic justice system and exploitative imperial liberal capitalism system
(iii) Awakened resistance sector of the society and ‘leaders’ who are subservient to the imperial powers of the global west who are scared of losing credibility and relevance of not being competent and reliable subordinates in the face of challenges posed by the Resistance Movement.
The origin of the enmity is ancient; it was a colonial transferred aggression. That had been the case since 1903, or even earlier, down through the colonial era to the successive puppet regimes that have been ruling the country on behave of the colonial masters.
The Governments in Nigeria have been stooges of the hegemonic powers and are operating on imperial political system and structures designed to benefit the imperial powers at the detriment of the citizens, whereas the Islamic Movement is a proponent of Islamic system and staunch opponent of injustice and imperialism. Colonialism and imperialism are built on delusion and deception that only highly corrupted puppets are capable of handling on behalf of the masters. Sheikh Zakzaky’s declaration of his renunciation distanced him and his Movement from the hegemonic system and the indigenous stooges who operate and protect it from that day to date. It was for this singular reason, that all the series of Governments in this country viewed the Islamic Movement as a threat to realization of the malignant hegemonic aspirations in Nigeria and perhaps, the collective marionette mandates. The Islamic Movement exposes the imperialists’ schemes and plots for plundering and enslaving Nigerians and puts forwards just and freedom options; the actions, the Governments viewed as discrediting in the eyes of their foreign lords.
These were the prime impasse Governments in this country had with the Islamic Movement and is a known tradition with any similar resistance movement anywhere, any generation, not because the Movement was Shiite inclined as claimed or posed any form of threat. In similar manner, in times before Sheikh Zakzaky’s Movement, Imam Khomeini was treated with same harshness even though all Iranian leaders of his time were Shiites. Also, Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio’s Movement in West Africa, faced similar fate, albeit he and the kings were all Sunni Muslims. Hatred and aggression are natural response for the evils to confront Movements when the two coexist in same location, one shouldn’t be surprise to see more of such Governments’ unprovoked crackdown on the Islamic Movement in this country with all impunities in the future.
With this extreme dislike feelings, the Nigerian Army under the command of its commander in chief unleashed its might and resources to see the end of Islamic Movement. The sixty-four-million-dollar question to answer is who does extermination of Shiites from the soil of Nigeria actually benefits, since Nigeria is known to be a multi-religion and multi-culture country? Certainly, no one within the country.
4.0 THE ARMY’S MICRO THEATERS OF DEATH AND DESTRUCTION
The Army, with every envy, hate and anger, on that day, unleashed its deadly war equipment wielding soldiers to bombard entire the murder theaters, day and night for a period of 72 hours, genociding and destroying every valuable things in them; in brutal and merciless manners reminiscent of Boko Haram and ISIS as compared by survivor witnesses.
The fill-to-brim capacity slaughter micro theaters were air tightly cordoned, trapping hundreds of men, women and children faithful in them before the bombardments. Under such strictest control situations, the Army executed its atrocious mission, brutally massacring humans, looting valuables and subsequently blowing up and razing everything to the ground. The slaughter theaters were:
(i) Hussainiyya Bakiyatullah, occupying a land roughly estimated to be not much more than 25,000m2, its human and property contents.
(ii) Residence of Sheikhs Zakzaky and adjacent buildings all occupying a roughly estimated land of not much less than 2,700m2, its human and historical and priceless property contents, including rare items and books were razed,
(iii) The famous Darur Rahmah (Film Village), an entire village, its human and property contents, mosque, graves, historic structures and lyrics,
(iv) The Fudiyya Islamic centre situated on a land a little less than 900m2 and its contents, including a library of rare books,
(v) The building housing Sheikh’s mother’s grave on a land not less than 700m2 and its contents.
The fact that there was no single killing outside the marked theaters the flawlessness of the operation without casualty on the side of the Army in the 3 days operation was an indication of an intended, well planned, calculated and executed massacre operation.
This is how evil “leaders” in authority targeted the associates of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria and made them highly endangered human species on their Motherland.
5.0 WHAT EMERGED FROM THE GENOCIDE SCENES AFTER THREE DAYS LONG CARNAGE:
The Army carried out the horrendous crack down in stiffly cordoned sites away from the eyes and ears of the public. However, after its withdrawal, assessments of human casualties from three theaters divulged;
(i) Thousands of associates of the Islamic Movement were extra judicially massacred in cool bloods.
(ii) Several of them burnt alive to death
(iii) Several others burnt but survived with high degrees of burns
(iv) Several others survived with life threatening bullet wounds
(v) Several others survived with bullet, bayonet wounds and burns.
(vi) Several others survived with life threatening bullet wounds and dangerous lead shrapnel lodged in their skulls and bodies (the case of Sheikh Zakzaky (H))
(vii) Several others were injured and buried alive in mass graves
(viii) Hundreds were also arrested and duped in the Kaduna dilapidated dungeon incommunicado
(ix) Several others were detained and denied access to medical attentions
(x) Similarly, hundreds of others were detained for years without justifications
(xi) Thousand others were left in all kinds of pain and unpleasant inhuman condition
(xii) Completely leveled sites, comparable to northern Gaza in Palestine, with all the rubbles stolen away
The aftermath conditions of the theaters informed what “Ba shia ba kayan shia” actually meant in the sense of it.
6.0 WERE WOMEN AND CHILDREN RIGHTS VIOLATED IN THE AGGRESSION?
To answer this question, we first of all have to prove the presence of women and children in the theatres before the genocide and if they were present, we then examine how they were treated or handled by the aggressing Army during the operation; and finally connect those who’s right were violated in the theaters, if any, with their relatives outside the theaters who might be psychologically violated.
At the time of the massacre the Movement was in peace mood of celebrations and women and children were not known to be exempted from such gatherings. In fact, women and children form bulk of the population because most people attend in cluster of families: grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren, siblings and even kids. It was a usual mode of celebrations of the movement to bring everybody onboard.
Tentative figures obtained not too long after the butchery operation suggested that there were 297 women and 193 directly massacred and could not survive the brutal operation. Testimonies from eye witnesses and survivors of the genocide and physical evidence have confirmed details of the rights violations meted on the women and children.
However, the figures cannot be precise until the identities of those in the several mass graves and those under Forceful disappearance are known; for now, they remain sketchy, but it is a known fact that far more than half of the population of those who attended the ceremony that day was women and children. The composition of women and children at any event hosted by the Islamic movement was not different from that of the larger society
a. Evidence of presence of women among the victims of the genocide
There was substantial number of women trapped in the venues of genocide and were victims of rights violation in the carnage. These women were subjected to the untold harsh brutality in the hand of the Army without discrimination. Some notable examples include;
(i) The several that were burnt alive to death, as the case of 70 yrs old Goggo Binta (Sheikh Zakzaky’s elder sister) who was harassed and burnt to death.
(ii) The several others buried alive in the mass graves, there were women.
(iii) the several that were burnt but survived with a high degree, there were women
(iv) The several others that survived with life threatening bullet wounds were women, like Malama Zeenah the wife of Sheikh Zakzaky (H) and Malama Habiba Ahmad Karofi
(v) There were Survivor mothers who were bereaved of their 5 or more children victims of massacre
(vi) Women were among the hundreds that were arrested and duped in dungeons and remained incommunicado for years e.g. Malama Zeenah Ibraheem
(vii) A 25 years old Sumayya Isa Hassan, my daughter, with whom I remained in contact with on the phone until she was momentarily silenced by the gun fires of the Nigerian Army in the morning of 13 December 2015, was in Sheikh Zakzaky’s residence, one of the micro theatres of the massacre.
(viii) Those forced to unclothed, not to talk of removal of hijabs
(ix) Those suffered sexual harassment and abuse
There is comprehensive documented information on each victim whose rights was violated in one way or the other. I personally, was an eyewitness of the event as well as a remote victim of violation having lost a daughter to the vampires in the operation.
b. Evidence of presence of children in the theaters of operations whose rights were violated
Considering the legal definition of the word Child; a person below the maturity age of 21 years, going through the list of the victims of the Zaria genocide one can gather a large number under this category. In addition to 193 murdered according to that document, children were among the;
(i) Over thousands extra judicially massacred in cool bloods there were children including the one and a half years old Shahidah baby Batool.
(ii) Several burnt alive to death there were children.
(iii) Those still undergoing treatments, close to 10 years latter
(iv) Several others burnt but survived with high degrees of burns. Example is the case of Mahdi Ibrahim with 100% of body burnt
(v) Others survived with life threatening bullet wounds e.g. the 11 years old Huassain, the son of martyr Dr Mustapha Sa’id, with spinal injury, to date depending on wheelchair for mobility.
(vi) Several others survived with bullet or bayonet wounds and burns; e.g. the 16 years old Mohammad Abdulkarim Zaria, still living with a permanent damaged bladder and other organs. He has been carrying urinary catheter and urine drainage bag along since then to date.
(vii) Several others that survived with life threatening bullet wounds and dangerous bullet lead shrapnel lodged in them.
(viii) Several others injured and buried alive in the mass graves many were children
(ix) Hundreds that were arrested and duped in the Kaduna dilapidated dungeon incommunicado were also children, e.g. Ali Prof Abdullahi Danladi
(x) Several others that were detained and denied access to medical attentions.
(xi) Hundreds detained for years without justifications
(xii) Many that were on treatments were set ablaze, e.g. Muhammad Buhari Ismail
(xiii) Several others that were buried alive. An example is the case Karima Auwal Hanwa was picked among co**se in the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital mortuary hours before dumping them in the mass grave. Who knows the many others in same conditions with Karima who couldn’t narrowly escape being buried alive?
(xiv) The 347 bodies Mando mass grave acknowledged by the state government and other mass graves comprised of unsorted male, female and children among which Karima might have been if not that she was lucky to have been retrieved.
7.0 THE ALLEGED PERPETRATORS OF THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
To itemize those directly involved in the violation of the women and children rights, apart from the foreign masters and sponsors, a wide spectrum of individuals and organization and governments will be captured. After the three days of the massacre the Islamic Movement file a case with the international criminal court (ICC) accusing those who played key role in the pogrom. A wider range of suspected culprits include;
(i) The Executive arm of the Federal Government: led by its president, General Muhammadu Buhari. State apparatus at his disposal activated for this operation were, the Nigerian Army (headed by General Tukur Yusuf Buratai), Department of state security service (DSS) (headed by Lawal Musa Daura), other agencies.
(ii) The Kaduna State Government: headed Governor Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai. The state apparatus mobilized for the operation: KASUPDA, other state agencies, local personalities, thugs and so on
(iii) Some necessarily vital members of the National Assembly whose identities were not clear
(iv) Other selected religious and political groups or organizations and traditional institutions and personalities.
8.0 BEYOUND WOMEN AND CHILDREN’S RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
In their bids to get rid of the 25 million plus Shiites according to their immediate estimate before venturing into the operation, the Nigerian Army resorted to indiscriminate mass killing any living thing in sight. The killing went on mercilessly without sparing anything and anyone including babies that were crawling towards them for help screaming ‘baba, baba’ after been scared from the deafening sounds of their guns and shelling. By the objectives of the slogan couldn’t be realized without obliterating women and children that were present in the theaters. Believing that the women were sources of further propagation of Shiite where regeneration could be possible, they concentrated on damaging productive organs like wombs and breasts of women. These purposeful and targeted actions could amount to genocide.
According to the United Nations convention on the prevention and punishment of crime of genocide, genocide is defined as deliberate and systematic acts committed with intention to partially or wholly destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. The army carried out deliberate, planned, and systematic operation intended to destroy Shiites in Nigeria by annihilating it women and children population in the realm of genocide. The genocide violations included;
(i) The Killing of women and children of the Islamic Movement community was a target on core component of the Movement to destroy it
(ii) Caused serious bodily or mental harm to the women and children members of the Movement
(iii) Deliberately inflicted on the Movement conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction
(iv) Imposed measures such as targeting womb and breast of women intending to prevent further births within the movement
(v) Forceful disappearances of some children
The Army under the authority of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, General Muhammadu Buhari, barbarically and ruthlessly committed all these murders using heavy artillery weapons on the defenseless women and children civilians who did not wield even sticks as a mean of defense. They used;
(i) Heavy and powerful weapons that could cut human being into halves with in a tiny fraction of a second from a distance of hundreds of meters. The case of Shahid Muntaka Haruna, a staffer of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria was a typical example.
(ii) Strong explosives were thrown indiscriminately followed by sporadic firing into family homes.
(iii) Women’s’ hips and breasts were deliberately targeted with gunshots and bayonet stabs to damage organs of reproduction.
(iv) Sexually harassed to inflict psychological stress and injuries
Ladies and gentle men, as we speak today, close to a decade after, some of these wounds of violations are still fresh and are still bleeding. The survivors are still in severe pains for crimes they did not know. Genocide is one of the greatest crimes under international law, and has often identified as "crime of crimes"
9.0 WAS IT PREMEDITATED OR ACCIDENTAL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS?
Their actions in those days looked deliberate, premeditated and not accidental, for the following reasons;
(i) The estimation of the strength of the Movement before the crackdown wasn’t coincidental
(ii) The mission of the operation was precisely named “Ba shia ba kayan shia”; to signal what was expected at the end.
(iii) There was a long-time consultation with religious leaders soliciting their supports
(iv) The brutalization and massacre of the women took place indoors, in homes and not on the street,
(v) The babies killed were on the laps of their mothers or crawling in their compounds
(vi) In some cases, the women were arrested in groups before torturing to death,
(vii) The massacre happened in broad day light where figures of women and children were distinct and clear
(viii) The genocide was well organized, smooth and not haphazard unlike what we see when dealing with Boko Haram or Bandits, so there was ample time to separate women and children from adult civilians
(ix) No single woman, child or any person was killed outside the mapped areas.
All these were proving premeditation and longtime preparedness before engagement in the three days massacre. Neither the Army nor the two arms of governments claimed lack deliberateness.
10.0 PRETEXS FOR THE VIOLATION OF THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN’S RIGHTS
The Army once accused some Islamic Movement activists of blocking access for the its chief in which it said before a high court in Kaduna, it had to kill some 7 before clearing the way. Did the women also block road for the Gen in their matrimonial homes? Or did they also shot at Gen Usman Kukasheka along Sokoto road in Zaria or were they also suspects in killing Cpl Kabiru Dan Kaduna? At least President Muhammadu Buhari did not say he saw women beating the chase of Army Generals. As such, what were the crimes of these women and children to warrant those heavy-handed brutalities and violation of rights?
In the whole blame saga, belligerents forgot to label anything blame against the women and children. Neither President Buhari who ordered the killing, the Nigerian Army under Buratai nor the Kaduna State Governor, El-Rufai who closely supervised and facilitated did not blame them of any wrong doing. Moreover, the entire Shiite label with dubious allegations were vindicated, exonerated and set free by the two Federal High Courts in Kaduna, saying that they did not block road for the COAS nor harm anybody.
The 2015 Zaria massacre was the largest and the most brutal inhuman massacre carried out on sinless women and children in the history of this country.
From all standards and definitions these innocent, weak and defenseless women and children civilians couldn’t be classified as incidental or consequential or collateral damage of a war that didn’t exist.
Having known the innocence of these victims, let’s give precise meaning to the aggressors’ actions in line with justice and rights.
11.0 REASONS WHY THE ARMY’S AGGRESSIONS AMOUNTED TO WOMEN AND CHILDREN’S RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
(i) According to UN conventions: the multiple UN conventions have articles, charters and protocols that protect women and children rights: their rights to life, right to properties, right to protections during crises etc.
(ii) According to UN agencies such as UNICEF- woman’s and child’s rights to Health be protected under any situation
(iii) According to International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC): Hague regulation (1899) Article 23(c) and Hague regulation (1907) Article 23(c) provides that killing of unarmed soldier during war is especially prohibited: “to kill or wound an enemy who, haven laid down arms, or haven no longer means of defense or has surrendered at discretion”; as such, not to talk of a civilian and much more of harmless women and children?
(iv) According to Nigerian Government: the Nigerian military operational code (1967) and Nigerian military manual (1994) corroborated the ICRC position, and provides that killing of defenseless enemy during war is prohibited especially “to kill or wound an enemy who, or haven laid down arms, or haven no longer means of defense, has surrendered at discretion”. What more of innocent women and children in their homes?
(v) According to Religion laws: women and children must be protected by warring parties even if they happen to be on the battle field (not fighting), not to talk of being in their matrimonial homes.
(vi) According to common human sense, logic and reasoning: for fairness in contest, competition, game and war; equality, category, class, gender, capability, expertise, and capacity are considerations which must be complied with.
For instance, in;
Soccer: eleven players play against eleven players: this is fair play
Age category: under 18 vs under 18, or under 23 vs under 23 for good and fair games
Expertise: Heavy weight vs heavy weight: for good and fair game
Gender: women team vs women team, men team vs men team for good and fair games
Capability: Olympic teams vs Olympic teams; Paralympics teams vs Paralympics teams for good and fair games
Capacity: war between high resource capacity and low resource capacity belligerent: is asymmetric, unconventional and unfair.
Based on these reasons, the;
Nigerian Army vs the few armless women and children was not a fear game but Genocide
Army generals vs Baby Batool was madness, Barbaric and animalistic
Army mass murder of unarmed women and children was massacre and tantamount to crime against humanity.
It’s note worthy that the legendary battle between David and Goliath in which the little and weaker David defeated the giant and experienced Goliath was an exceptional case because that was a divine miracle which fell outside ordinary comparison in human endeavor, even though if put context, baby Batool against the generals was a defeat to the Army Generals in the Zaria battle ground, since the Shiite and the Shiite properties aimed to annihilate have not only survived the operation but had multiplied many folds a decade after.
To sum it all, it is fully understood that the women and children like any other human being have rights to dignity, honor and life which needed to have been protected during the operation but were blatantly stolen away by the Nigerian Government. Evidence has proven that none of the women and children was harmful to anybody or to anything or was sinful to any being at the time of the genocide. Besides, the brutal violations were seen to be preplanned and executed with intention of extermination. Neither were the victims in any way caught up in cross fires in their homes as there was no battle being fought in the houses in the first place. It was one way fight; only the Army was armed and firing. Apart from that, it is a known fact that even if they happened to be present in what the Army mapped out to be theater of massacre, the entire law demanded the armed Army to protect them against any harm, as they were not armed and had no means of defense. In addition, many high court judgments have exonerated the victims of any blames and indicted the perpetrators of crimes of right violations.
Therefore, in a summarized statement from the positions of these laws with respect to this matter: killing of women and children in the conditions under investigation may be considered a crime against humanity identical to war crime. As such, the gruesome violations by the Army must be condemned by all, as presence of laws and rules of engagements and conventions do not protect anyone from violation nor get justice for victims of violations.
12.0 A DECADE AFTER: IS IT A CASE OF JUSTICE DELAYED OR JUSTICE DENIED?
The hope for securing justices was placed on interventions of the international bodies like the United Nations Human Rights Council, Amnesty international and similar bodies, UNICEF, Feminists and advocates, Civil society organizations for Human rights and the international community; the claimants of human right, freedom and civility but that didn’t yield positive result; diminishing the hope to permanent suspicious denial of justice. Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations was frank when he confessed that his office, the highest world body has no power to stop the Us-Israeli genocides on Gaza even when his staffers, programs and facilities were decimated. What should e expect from the UN and its subsidiaries?
Today, it’s a decade after and there is no sign of justice for the 2015 Zaria right violated women and children, the incident hasn’t been investigated, neither were the mass graves unveiled nor the perpetrators prosecuted. It appears, the multidimensional weakness and affiliation of the Zaria victims might have contributed to obscuring and making them unnoticed to these bodies whose eyes are more directed towards the interests of their sponsors. These world bodies could see and threw their weight behind the controversial case of Mahsa Amini, the 22 years old Iranian lady who slummed and died in police custody in 2022, but pretended not to see real and large-scale right violations committed in a broad day light on the streets of Zaria, involving many women and children, including babies. These right violation victims did come clean and innocent and their demand for justice is legitimate and not excessive.
Despite these sad experiences, we believe hope for justice isn’t completely lost to get, it is better late than never at all but how can they get even the belated justice, even though it is said, justice delayed is justice denied? Isn’t it imperative on this international day for justice to make a stride towards deciding the fates of these violated rights so as to end the inability to prosecute the emboldened right violators who step on international laws, charters and conventions with impunity?
In such a case, where does the Zarian victim seek solace outside the State and the International bodies? Can they get it themselves justice going the Gazan way, believing that it is only one’s personal defense power: strengths, weapons and alliance is the solution? Late Bob Marley had correctly warned long ago when he said ‘you will not find justice in a world where criminals make the rules’ and this is the situation we are in Nigeria and the world today. But with this ample right to fight back, what is the worth of the Zarian victims’ personal power that can defend and protect them against the state and their international backers and what is the deficit can be garnered from sympathizers around the world that can get them justice the way Gazan Palestinians did? For sure what the victims possess in terms of power is too meager and does not amount to anything even in the Gaza model. So, what then is going to be their fate, what can we do for them in this year’s genocide victims commemoration week at our own level to add to their little strength?
13.0 SOLIDARITY AND ALLIANCE FOR THE VICTIMS OF THE RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
The 2015 Zaria victims of genocide have peacefully pursued their rights; politically diplomatically and legally at local and international levels, with the international criminal court of justice, since the occurrence of the incident but up to-date, justice has not been served. That was how far they could afford to reach.
To go beyond that height and depth, they may require our solidarity and alliance in the spirit of international genocide prevention. As such, we solicit for partnership from the various public influencers to help in revealing the crimes of the Nigerian governments, their colonial lords and allies, the Nigerian Army and other local players suspected to have been involved in this rights violation in the dark hours of 12 to 14th December in Zaria where 1000s were massacred.
Our first ambition is to get the perpetrators of the genocide be black listed the way Israeli leaders were black listed following the genocides committed in Gaza which puts them at par with the atrocious ISIS, Al-qaeda and Boko Haram terrorist groups or get them shamed and sanctioned before prosecutions. To get this done, we need to add our efforts in solidarity to their efforts so that we can develop strong partnership that can make better impact at the global level that will create awareness and attract sympathy for the victims. These efforts if well harnessed will help prepare the ground for arraigning the heartless violators before the International Court of Justice with war crime or similar charges as did South Africa in the case of Gazan massacre by Israel.
Alternatively, We can add to their strength in another different way; we have the refined new Gazan model at hand for us to imitate. This model has 100% chances of success and we’ll be calling for solidarity in one big voice to add to the voices of the weak victims to create awareness, pressure and remind those responsible to wake up to their responsibilities as they pretended to know nothing went wrong. The perpetrators of the Zaria 2015 genocide would always hide their crimes not minding the sufferings of the victims. Let’s remember that the battle being fought by these weak genocide victims is against one of the strongest states on African continent, Nigeria, the giant of Africa.
14.0 CONCLUSIONS
It was exactly 10 years ago about this day, when the world was in the mood of creating awareness for the victims of genocide that the Nigerian government, under false pretext, organized and executed a large-scale brutal genocide which saw the massacre of over one thousand civilians including women and children to mark this international occasion with utmost impunity. Several high court judgements did exonerate all the victims including the women and children of any wrong doing in the matter, proving their innocence and indicting Nigerian government and its army of crimes. The carnage led to destruction of properties, killing, injuries, right violations and many mass graves. The survivors and relatives of the murdered ones have been seeking for justice but are yet to succeed. Justice seems to have been denied to them, since the institutions and bodies responsible for pursuing it pretend incapable and ignorance. Ladies and gentlemen, it is on this note in the spirit of humanity that we solicit for your cooperations and alliances to collectively throw our weights behind them, adding to the little they have done, to enable them secure justice in a good time before life is snuffed out of the remaining survivors under the burden of genocide traumas.
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