Nigeria: Turning Blind Eye to Mass Killings

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A woman walks through a house that was burned during the January 19, 2010 attack on Kuru Karama, Plateau State, which left more than 170 Muslims dead. © 2010 Susan Schulman 422213
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A photograph of a baby found in the rubble of a house in Kuru Karama, Plateau State. © 2010 Susan Schulman 422213
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Composite image of victims of the 2010 and 2011 violence in Nigeria’s Plateau and Kaduna States. Photos © Private or © 2011 Eric Guttschuss/Human Rights Watch 422213
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A Christian woman, from the Berom ethnic group, holds up a photograph of her son who was killed in a February 22, 2011 attack on Bere Riti village, Plateau State. © 2012 Eric Guttschuss/Human Rights Watch 422213
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A Muslim woman, from the Hausa-Fulani ethnic group, holds up a photograph of her husband who was killed on April 19, 2011 in Zonkwa, Kaduna State. © 2011 Eric Guttschuss/Human Rights Watch 422213
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Houses burned by mobs during the January 17-19, 2010 sectarian violence in Jos, the capital of Plateau State. © 2010 Susan Schulman 422213
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A church in Jos, Plateau State, that was destroyed during sectarian violence on January 17-19, 2010. Christian leaders said 23 churches were destroyed in the violence. © 2010 Susan Schulman 422213
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Children stand outside a mosque that was burned during the January 17-19, 2010 sectarian violence in Jos, Plateau State. © 2010 Susan Schulman 422213
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A church burned during sectarian violence on April 18-19, 2011 in Kafanchan, Kaduna State. Christian leaders said 129 churches were burned in Kaduna State during the violence. © 2011 Eric Guttschuss/Human Rights Watch 422213
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A young Muslim woman, from the Hausa-Fulani ethnic group, was badly burned by a mob during the January 19, 2010 attack on Kuru Karama, Plateau State, which left more than 170 Muslims dead. © 2010 Susan Schulman 422213
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A Nigerian Red Cross official tends to a wounded man in Jos, Plateau State, on January 21, 2010. © 2010 Reuters 422213
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A Fulani man, who is Muslim, was attacked by a mob on April 19, 2011 in Jaba local government area of Kaduna State. Fulani leaders said at least 350 rural Fulani in the southern part of the state were killed in the violence. © 2011 Private 422213
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A man stands in the rubble of the main market in Kafanchan, Kaduna State, on April 25, 2011. Hundreds of shops, houses, and vehicles were burned during the April 18-19, 2011 violence in Kafanchan. © 2011 Benedicte Kurzen/VII Network/Pulitzer Center 422213
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People slowly return to the Bukuru Market, in Bukuru, Plateau State, after mobs destroyed the market on January 19, 2010. © 2010 Susan Schulman 422213
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A soldier stands guard atop of an armored vehicle outside the central mosque in Jos, Plateau State, during Friday prayers on January 22, 2010, after a week of violence that left hundreds dead. © 2010 Reuters/Akintunde Akinleye 422213
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Detainees arrested during or immediately after the April 2011 violence in Kaduna State were brought before the chief magistrate’s court in the city of Kaduna on April 21, 2011. Detainees with fresh scars on their backs told journalists that they had been beaten by the police and soldiers in custody. The authorities later dropped charges against nearly all the detainees arrested in connection to the violence. © 2011 Benedicte Kurzen/VII Network/Pulitzer Center 422213
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A broken suitcase on a road near burned vehicles on April 19, 2011 after post-election violence in the city of Kaduna. Travelers were dragged out of their vehicles and killed by sectarian mobs on the main roads leading north and south of the city. © 2011 Reuters 422213
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Dozens of bodies were found inside Kuru Karama’s wells following the April 19, 2010 attack, which left more than 170 Muslims dead. © 2010 Susan Schulman 422213
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Mourners on March 8, 2010, observe the mass burial of 70 Christians, including 38 children, killed in the March 7, 2010 attack on Dogo Nahawa, Plateau State. © 2010 Reuters/Akintunde Akinleye 422213
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A mass grave for the victims of the April 18–19, 2011 attack on Zonkwa, Kaduna State. Muslim leaders said that 311 Muslims were buried in mass graves during three burials from April 21 to 23, 2011. © 2011 Private 422213
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Bodies at the mortuary of Saint Gerard’s Hospital in the city of Kaduna on April 20, 2011, after post-election violence in Kaduna State left hundreds dead. © 2011 Benedicte Kurzen/VII Network/Pulitzer Center 422213
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Three Christian men, from the Berom ethnic group, stand next to a mass grave in Gwanfil village, Plateau State, where they buried 15 neighbors and family members—4 men, 3 women and 8 children—who were shot and killed in an attack on September 9, 2011. © 2012 Eric Guttschuss/Human Rights Watch 422213
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Neighbors hold up a photograph of members of a Christian family from the Berom ethnic group who were killed during an attack on Tatu village, Plateau State, on September 4, 2011. Eight members of the family, including two women and four children pictured in the photograph, were shot and killed in the attack. © 2012 Eric Guttschuss/Human Rights Watch 422213
Nigeria’s government has largely ignored years of mass murder in Plateau and Kaduna states in central Nigeria. The report catalogs horrific sectarian violence in these two states, which has left more than 3,000 people dead since 2010.
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