{"id":2730,"date":"2018-12-18T15:36:31","date_gmt":"2018-12-18T15:36:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/?p=2730"},"modified":"2018-12-18T15:36:31","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T15:36:31","slug":"nigeria-concerned-over-amnesty-internationals-damaging-activities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/2018\/12\/18\/nigeria-concerned-over-amnesty-internationals-damaging-activities\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria concerned over Amnesty International’s ‘damaging’ activities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nigeria<\/a> is \u201cconcerned\u201d about Amnesty International\u2019s activities, a spokesman for President Muhammadu Buhari has said, just days after the government briefly banned Unicef over claims it was training \u201cspies\u201d sympathetic to Boko Haram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe federal government is increasingly concerned about the role that Amnesty International<\/a> is playing in the war against terror in Nigeria,\u201d Garba Shehu said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe organisation\u2019s operations in Nigeria seem geared towards damaging the morale of the Nigerian military,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt often appears as if the Nigerian government is fighting two wars on terror: against Boko Haram and against Amnesty International.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statement comes on the same day that the Nigerian military threatened the \u201cclosure\u201d of the global rights watchdog in a statement posted on Facebook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Army public relations director Brigadier General Sani Usman said Amnesty was \u201cdetermined to destabilise\u201d Nigeria through the \u201cfabrication of fictitious allegations of alleged human rights abuses\u201d and \u201cclandestine sponsorship of dissident groups to protest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The military has in the past been critical of international organisations operating in the country and has hit out at organisations reporting that it committed rights violations and war crimes during its fight against Boko Haram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bloody Islamist uprising in northeastern Nigeria began in 2009 and has spread to neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger, killing at least 27,000 people and leaving millions dependent on aid for survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday the military banned Unicef from operating in the country over claims it was training \u201cspies\u201d who support Boko Haram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It retracted the ban within hours following an \u201cintervention by well meaning and concerned Nigerians,\u201d according to an army spokesman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buhari, who came to power in 2015 pledging to end the violence, is under increasing pressure to act as he gears up to seek re-election in a February ballot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 76-year-old former army general has come under attack for previously claiming the jihadists were \u201ctechnically defeated\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nigeria is \u201cconcerned\u201d about Amnesty International\u2019s activities, a spokesman for President Muhammadu Buhari has said, just days after the government briefly banned Unicef over claims it was training \u201cspies\u201d sympathetic to Boko Haram. \u201cThe federal government is increasingly concerned about the role that Amnesty International is playing in the war against terror in Nigeria,\u201d Garba Shehu said in a statement. \u201cThe organisation\u2019s operations… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2730"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2731,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2730\/revisions\/2731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}