UN calls for strengthening of fight against Boko Haram

The United Nations High Commissioner for the rights of man, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, called for a large-scale response, urging all Governments in the region of Lake Chad to ensure respect for human rights in the measures taken against the extremist group, given the scale of the abuses committed by Boko Haram.

Speaking at the headquarters of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday, the High Commissioner said that his teams were able to document the "extensive and far-reaching" human rights violations perpetrated by Boko Haram.

Experts from the United Nations High Commission for human rights (OHCHR) paid visits to the field, especially to the North of Cameroon, northeast of Nigeria and southern Niger in order to gather evidence to develop a report on the issue to be submitted to the Council in September. A visit to Chad is also planned in the coming days, he said.

"The interviews conducted by my teams with former captives and survivors of Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria indicate a tendency to carry out vicious and indiscriminate attacks dating back several months, or even several years," said Mr. Zeid.

The survivors mostly note acts of torture, destruction, fires and looting villages of schools and hospitals, cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment, abductions, sexual slavery, rape and forced marriages, enrolment of child soldiers and killings of men, women and children, said the High Commissioner.

"Over the past year, ruthless attacks on towns and villages in Cameroon, Niger and Chad have also generated terrible suffering. "People were burned alive in their own homes, decapitated, enslaved, raped, tortured, and forcibly recruited," he added.

It is clear that the authorities must do everything in their power to ensure that the perpetrators of such acts are accountable, insisted Mr. Zeid.

The attack of Boko Haram also had heavy economic impact due to the destruction of bridges, cut roads, the destruction of agricultural fields and displacement of populations that traditionally produce food, he added.