ICC Note: Reported numbers in northeast Nigeria suggest that the country’s own security forces pose a threat to the local population, sometimes as scary as Boko Haram. Washington Post reports Nigerian soldiers are responsible for extrajudicial killings of people suspected of Boko Haram connections with some 8,000 dead. That represents a third of the number Boko Haram, itself, has killed during its six-year insurgency in the region. Boko Haram is perhaps the largest persecutor of the Church in Nigeria, but Christians and Muslims alike fear the Islamist terrorists have inflitrated sections of the security forces and are warring against the military from within.

By Michelle Faul and Ibrahim Abdulaziz

2/22/16 YOLA, Nigeria (Washington Post) — First come the whispers, then accusations loud enough to raise alarms throughout Nigeria’s northeastern villages ravaged by extremist violence. Next, people accused of being Boko Haram are rounded up, sometimes by the military, sometimes by a civilian self-defense force. Many are never seen again.

The murmurs exploded into a rare open-throated protest recently when a teacher and two middle-aged farmers were taken away in Duhu village. Women who knew the men insisted they did not belong to the Islamic extremist group, and marched to a nearby military base to demand their release. Instead, the men were shot to death and their bodies were dumped outside town.

Nigeria’s military denied ever detaining elementary school teacher Habu Bello and farmers Idrisa Dele and Umaru Hammankadi last month. But several villagers told The Associated Press that they watched as the men were led away by uniformed soldiers who accused them of being Boko Haram fighters.

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