United Nations Warns Nigeria, Others To Stop Abducting Journalists, Others

• The United Nations chief urged countries to fulfill their obligations toward preventing and prosecuting cases of enforced disappearance, a “cowardly practice” which the coronavirus pandemic has made even more difficult to combat.

The United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres has called on the Federal Government of Nigeria and other governments to stop enforced disappearance.

In a telling report by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), it was revealed that in Nigeria, “not less than 600 were disappeared or feared killed in the captivity” of the Nigerian military. It also stated that “over 90 percent of the victims of the atrocities are innocent.”

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The United Nations chief urged countries to fulfill their obligations toward preventing and prosecuting cases of enforced disappearance, a “cowardly practice” which the coronavirus pandemic has made even more difficult to combat.

Guterres made the appeal in his message on Monday to mark the International Day to honor victims of this serious human rights violation, observed on August 30.

“Together, we can, and we must end all enforced disappearances,” he said.

Enforced disappearance refers to the arrest, detention, or abduction of persons by state agents or those acting with state authorization or support whose whereabouts are unknown.

Abubakar Dadiyata, a critic of the Nigeria government, had been abducted since 2019 in Kaduna and has not been seen to date.

According to the United Nations, once largely the product of military dictatorships, enforced disappearance has become a global problem, with hundreds of thousands of people disappearing in more than 80 countries.