GENOCIDE: CASE STUDY OF NIGERIA

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Since independence in 1960, Nigeria has suffered from a number of crises; these crises have

been predominantly ethnic and religious conflicts. Nigeria is nation with high ethnic diversity

being home to over 300 different ethnic groups. This heterogeneous nature of the country has

led to the situation whereby the tendency of various nationals is towards parochial

consciousness at the expense of national consciousness. Even though a single case of genocide

has not hitherto been recorded in Nigeria, a number of the conflicts possess elements of

genocide.

There are various definitions of the term genocide, but almost all international bodies of law

officially adjudicate the crime of genocide pursuant to the convention on the prevention and

punishment of the crime of genocide (CPPCG). The Convention on the prevention and

punishment of the crime of genocide was adopted by the United Nations general assembly on

9 December 1948 and came into effect 12 January 1951 (Wikipedia, 2011b) Article 2 of the

convention defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy in

whole or in part , ethnical, racial, or religious group as such: killing members of the group

causing serous bodily or mental harm to member of the group deliberately inflicting on the

group condition of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,

imposing measures intended to prevent birth within the group; [and] forcibly transferring

children of the group to another group.

This write-up presents an investigative project carried out to study all the conflicts that have

occurred in Nigeria since Independence in 1960 and present accounts of the cases that contain

elements of genocide or bear resemblances to genocide. Facts will be collected and presented

regarding the causes and effects of these conflicts. The causes and effects will then be analysed

by comparing them to those points cited in the definition of genocide.

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 CHAPTER 2: GENOCIDE

The term "genocide" was coined by Raphael Lemkin (19001959), a Polish-Jewish legal

scholar, in 1944, firstly from the Greek root gnos (meaning: birth, race, stock, kind); secondly

from Latin -cidium (meaning: cutting, killing) via French -cide.

2.1 GENOCIDE AS A CRIME

While instances of genocide have occurred throughout history, it was not until 1948 that the

United Nations agreed to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of The Crime of

Genocide (CPPCG) which defined the crime of genocide under international law. In the wake

of the Holocaust, Raphael Lemkin successfully campaigned for the universal acceptance of

international laws defining and forbidding genocide. In 1946, the first session of the United

Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution that "affirmed" that genocide was a crime

under international law, but did not provide a legal definition of the crime. In 1948, the UN

General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of

Genocide which legally defined the crime of genocide for the first time. The Convention came

into effect on 12 January 1951; it contains an internationally-recognized definition of genocide

which was incorporated into the national criminal legislation of many countries, and was also

adopted by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the treaty that established the

International Criminal Court (ICC). The Convention defines genocide thus:

...any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national,

ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

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(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical

destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Genocide is a crime under international law regardless of whether committed in time of peace

or in time of war and is a punishable international crime.

The first draft of the Convention included political killings, but it was removed because the

Union of Soviet Socialists Republic (USSR) along with some other nations argued that political

groups are too vaguely defined, as well as temporary and unstable. They further held that

international law should not seek to regulate or limit political conflicts, since that would give

the United Nations too much power to interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign nations. This

removal has been a source of controversy since then as critics have argued that the exclusion

of political groups from the definition, as well as the lack of a specific reference to the

destruction of a social group through the forcible removal of a population, was designed to

protect the Soviet Union and the Western Allies from possible accusations of genocide in the

wake of World War II.

2.2 ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAW

Even though the crime of genocide came into force as international law on 12 January 1951, it

was not until in the 1990s that the international law on the crime of genocide began to be

enforced. This was because at the time the law came into force, only two of the five permanent

members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) that is, France and Republic of

China, were parties to the treaty. Eventually the other countries joined hence causing the

Convention to languish for over four decades.

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 CHAPTER 3: CASE STUDY OF NIGERIA

This chapter presents cases of conflicts in Nigeria since 1960 where the occurrence of genocide

is perceived to have occurred.

3.1 IGBO MASSACRE (1966)

The period between May 29 and September 29, 1966 witnessed a series of massacres of Igbos

in Northern Nigeria where about 30,000 Igbos, mostly civilians, were killed. The massacres

occurred as a result of several contributing reasons.

Nigeria was amalgamated in 1914 by The British government during the colonial years. The

British colonial ideology divided Nigeria into three regions North, West and East; this

exacerbated the already well-developed economic, political, and social differences among

Nigeria's different ethnic groups. One of the effects of this system of government was the

occurrence of demographic segregation of Nigerians who managed to migrate to northern

Nigeria making them strangers there. This stranger-indigene relationship that existed

between the southerners and northerners created tension between them. The British colonial

system relied on manpower and resources from the south to run the north, Igbos, due to

economic considerations immigrated to the North in search of better paying white-man jobs.

Many of them became successful merchants and dominated commerce in the north; this made

the northerners to regard the Igbos as a threat along with the perception of the existence of an

Igbo conspiracy to become the new rulers of independent Nigeria.

On January 15, 1966, Major Kaduna Nzeogwu attempted a coup dtat. The two major political

leaders of the north, The prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and The Premier of the

northern region, Sir Ahmadu Bello were executed by Major Nzeogwu while the President, Sir

Nnamdi Azikiwe, an Igbo, was on an extended vacation in the West indies. Because of the

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ethnicity of those that were killed, it was generally speculated that the coup had been initiated

by the Igbos for their own primary benefit. This added to an already tense ethnic atmosphere.

The coup failed and General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, an Igbo and head of the Nigerian Army,

took power as President, becoming the first military head of state in Nigeria. General Ironsi did

not bring the failed plotters to trial as requested by military law and as advised by most northern

and western officers. Also, the ease with which Ironsi stopped the coup led to the suspicion

that the Igbo coup plotters planned all along to pave the way for Ironsi to take the reins of

power in Nigeria.

In a bid to do away with the divisive tendencies of Regionalism, General Ironsi dissolved the

regions and declared Nigeria a Unitary republic. This led to the anti-Ironsi riots that occurred

in the north in May 1966 where mainly Igbos were attacked. The May riots died down and the

Igbos who had fled home were given a guarantee of safety by General Ironsi and returned.

Ironsi was killed in a vengeful counter-coup led by mostly Northern Officers, in July 1966.

The counter-coup further increased ethnic tensions; this resulted in mass pogroms against the

Igbos in July and September, 1966.

The Igbo massacre has been called a pogrom and not genocide. According to Wikipedia

(2011a), pogroms are 'short-lived outbursts by mobs, which, although often condoned by

authorities, rarely persist.' Genocide on the other hand, involves attempts to exterminate a

group based on nationality, religion or ethnicity. For such an attempt to be characterised as

genocide however, the attempt must persist. As for the case of the 1966 attack on the Igbos,

the violence stopped once the perceived enemy, the Igbos, were driven out of the region

(Northern Nigeria).

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3.2 NIGERIAN CIVIL WAR

The pogroms of 1966 led to the mass movement of Igbo and other Eastern Nigerians back to

Eastern Nigeria. The counter-coup of 1966 placed Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon in power who failed

at stopping the killing of Igbo civilians by fellow Northerners; this led to increasing anti-

Nigerian feelings on the part of the Igbos. Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu, the then military

governor of the Eastern Region, declared Eastern Nigeria's secession from the federation as the

Republic of Biafra. This resulted in the Nigerian Civil War. The Nigerian Civil War which

occurred between 6 July, 1967 and 15 January 1970, was fought with the Eastern Nigerians

mainly Igbos on one side attempting to secede from Nigeria and the Nigerian Federal

Government on the other side attempting to prevent secession of the region. Over 200,000

military and civilian casualties were estimated on the Nigerian side while the number was over

a million on the Biafran side. The war ended with the fall of Biafra, the Nigerian Government

succeeded in preventing the attempted secession.

There were reports and testimonies of victims and observers about the gross cruelty and

barbarism of the Nigerian soldiers meted on Igbos civilians even after the surrender of Biafran

rebel soldiers, those acts raised the question of a genocidal motivation. An example is cited

below.

According to Dr. Mensah he received evidence from two witnesses about mass graves
where dead, sick and wounded Biafrans were buried alive with some sucklings and the cries
and wailing of the sick, the wounded and the babies could be heard from a long distance
away. In this testimony, it was also mentioned that, when these mass graves had been
covered, the Federal soldiers danced native war dances over them. (Amadi, 2007)

Even though reports show that the Nigerian Civil War did have some elements that suggest

genocide but other facts of the war that prevailed provide a different scenario. One of those

facts was that rather than other Nigerian ethnic groups wanting the Igbo outside the federation,

they wanted them inside; this is seen in the attempt by the Nigerian Government to prevent

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secession the main objective of the war. Genocide usually involves determination to drive

the victimized ethnic or religious group out of the territorial space. Another fact is that

Genocide usually ends by either of two ways the victims are completely exterminated or their

attackers are restrained or overcome. In the Biafran conflict none of these happened. Nigerian

soldiers were not restrained by Biafran soldiers. No external forces aided the victims against

the aggressors. When the aggressors overran the victims, they restrained themselves and

brought the aggression to a halt.

3.3 OGONI

Ogoniland in Rivers State of the Nigeria is the home to the Ogoni people, an ethnic minority

of about 500,000 people found in the Niger Delta. Oil was discovered in Ogoni by Shell in

1958 and since then, Ogoni has been a place of high oil mining activities. Petroleum mining

activities resulted in massive environmental degradation leading to loss of farmlands and

fishing waters. Other occurrences that have plagued the area as with most other areas in the

Niger Delta are lack of development, poverty, high unemployment rates, political

marginalisation and lack of basic amenities despite the enormous amount of wealth generated

from these areas. These factors gave birth to the struggle by the Ogoni people for better

conditions of life and led to the formation of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People

(MOSOP). MOSOP initiated its efforts with the 1990 Ogoni Bill of Rights, addressed to the

federal government, in which the Ogonis sought to be recognised as "a separate and distinct

ethnic nationality." On this basis they sought autonomy, environmental protection, control of

a fair share of the revenues from their resources, and cultural rights. Their demands were

ignored and so the Ogoni embarked on intense publicity at the national and international levels

and MOSOP embarked on the mass mobilisation of the Ogoni grassroots, in preparation for

non-violent struggle. This marked the beginning of a conflict between the Ogoni people and

7
the Federal Government of Nigeria that would escalate to the point of application of overt

violence by the Nigerian Government.

In November 1992, MOSOP issued an ultimatum to the oil companies (Shell, Chevron, and

the Nigerian National Petroleum Company) which demanded some $10 billion in accumulated

royalties, damages and compensation, and "immediate stoppage of environmental

degradation," and negotiations for mutual agreement on all future drilling. If the companies

failed to comply, the Ogonis threatened to embark on mass action to disrupt their operations.

The national government responded by banning public gatherings and declaring that

disturbances of oil production were acts of treason. In spite of the ban, MOSOP went ahead

with a massive public mobilization on January 4, 1993. The event, called the first Ogoni Day,

attracted about 300,000 people in massive festivities. Over the next month as the mobilization

continued, one Shell employee was beaten by an Ogoni mob. As a temporary security measure,

Shell Petroleum Development Company withdrew its employees from Ogoniland. In a bid to

restore order and resume oil mining activities, the government deployed security forces to the

area. Several acts of violence and murders followed throughout that year and the subsequent

one. Even though official sources say the acts were as result of ethnic clashes, other sources

and some eye witness accounts say the Nigerian security forces along with Shell Petroleum

Development Company were directly involved in the attacks. In May 1994, four Ogoni chiefs

(all on the conservative side of a schism within MOSOP over strategy) were murdered. Kenule

Beeson Saro-Wiwa, head of the opposing faction, who had been denied entry to Ogoniland on

the day of the murders, was detained in connection with the killings. The Military was sent to

Ogoni with the claim of "searching for those directly responsible for the killings of the four

Ogonis." Witness accounts say the forces engaged in terror operations against the general

Ogoni population. It is reported that the occupation resulted in the creation of about 100,000

internal refugees and an estimated 2,000 civilian deaths. In November 1994, Ken Saro-Wiwa

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and eight others were executed in connection with the killings by the Nigerian Government

despite international appeals for leniency.

3.4 ODI MASSACRE

The Odi massacre happened on the 29th day of November 1999, when the Nigerian military

invaded the predominantly Ijaw town of Odi in Bayelsa State. The invasion came following

the killing of 7 policemen a few days earlier in Odi. The policemen were on a special

investigation mission concerning reports of one Ken Niweigha mobilising Ijaw youths under

Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) slogans for resource control, environmental protection and political

autonomy in preparation for action with respect to ethnic clashes between Ijaws resident in

Ajegunle, Lagos and a faction of the Yoruba group, Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) weeks

earlier. Ken Niweigha and his gang were among the political thugs that worked for the victory

of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the previously held elections. After the

elections, they became unemployed and turned to criminality, terrorizing the inhabitants of

Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa State. After being dislodged around September 1999, they

moved to Odi, the home town of their leader, Ken Niweigha, where they continued with their

criminal activities. It is reported that community members raised concerns about activities of

the group including holding meetings with the group and a letter to the Bayelsa State

Commissioner of Police, but the Police never responded (Environment Rights Action, 2002).

President Olusegun Obasanjo, the then president of the country, wrote the governor of Bayelsa

State, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha threatening to impose a state of emergency in the state

if the killers were not arrested and prosecuted within 14 days. Four days to the expiration of

the ultimatum, soldiers were dispatched to Odi and the surrounding communities with the

objective to dislodge perpetrators of violence, restore law and order and apprehend suspected

murderers (Nwajah, 1999). By the end of the military action, an estimated total of 2,483

9
people including women and children were killed. Many more were injured, displaced,

traumatized and a lot of properties destroyed (Environment Rights Action, 2002).

3.5 BENUE STATE MASSACRE

Following clashes between Tiv and Jukun ethnic groups in Benue State in October 2001 the

Federal Government of Nigeria deployed men of the Nigerian army to restore law and order in

the area. In the same month, the mutilated bodies of 19 soldiers were found in the village of

Zaki-Biam. The soldiers were believed to have been victims of local militia men of Tiv

ethnicity. In response, the Nigerian Army, on October 22, 2001, deployed more troops who

went out on a revenge mission with the result that more than 200 militiamen and innocent

civilians were killed in the Tiv villages of Gbeji, Vasae, Anyiin Iorja, Ugba, Sankera and Zaki-

Biam, all located in the two local government areas of Logo and Zaki-Biam in Benue State. In

the following two days, there was widespread destruction of property and buildings in these

villages, after terrified residents had abandoned their homes. None of the soldiers responsible

for the attacks was indicted.

3.6 PLATEAU STATE

Since 1999, Plateau State has experienced relentless waves of violence that has led to loss of

numerous lives, destruction of properties and rendering many homeless. The main triggers of

this violence have been politics and issue of indigeneship; the crises usually degenerate into

ethnic clashes between the indigenes of the state (e.g. Berom in Jos) and the settlers, mostly

Hausas; and also religious clashes between Christians and Muslims. The Hausa settlers in

Plateau State, who are referred to as Jasawa and predominantly situated in the Jos area have

always sought ways to play active roles in the politics of the State (to the point of being able

to successfully secure the position of Chairman of Jos North Local Government Area in the

1991 elections); the indigenes of the state however do not find the idea welcoming as they

10
claim that the Jasawa are not true indigenes of the land and should not occupy positions that

are key in the State. This has been a source of tension between the two groups for quite some

time now.

The situation escalated when in 1999, the Jasawas were refused indigene certificates in Jos

North, which they used to be issued; and the appointment of a Jasawa, Mukhtar Mohammed

into the Federal position of the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP)

Coordinator for Jos North Local Government in 2001. Tensions rose high and violence finally

broke out in September 2001 resulting in the death of over 1,000 people in about six days.

Since then there have been several cases of violence till date. A few of the major cases are

briefly summarised in the sections that follow.

3.6.1YELWA MASSACRE

The Yelwa massacre took place in on May 2, 2004 in Yelwa town located south of Jos, Plateau

State capital. It is reported that almost 700 Muslims (including women and children) were

massacred over the course of the next two days by Christians. Twelve mosques and 300 houses

were burnt down. Although this attack was on a much larger scale, it came during a time of

previous religious clashes between Muslims and Christians in the area.

3.6.2VIOLENCE IN JOS (NOVEMBER 2008)

The 2008 Local Government elections in Plateau State was characterised by irregularities.

After being postponed twice (January and March of the same year), the election was finally

held on November 27, 2008. The voting process itself was fairly successful; it was the collation

of voting results that seemed to have sparked off the violence:

"...the result collation centre for Jos North was taken to an area considered to be very hostile
to members of our community (Kabong). Eye witness account indicated that after receipt of
result of 15 wards ANPP candidate was leading his closest rival, the PDP candidate with

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 23,150 votes. At that stage, the returning officers for the remaining five wards came with
very dubious results unaccompanied by the usual security personnel and party agents. The
ANPP and DPP representatives at the collation centre complained against the receipt of such
results in the absence of any satisfactory explanation as to what led the absence of those
that ordinarily should accompany these result. There and then, the police and other security
personnel attached to the collation centre hurriedly evacuated the electoral officials and
party agents to the State police headquarters, according to them, for safety reasons. The few
members of our community at the collation centre who went there under the policy of
akasa, atsare, araka were instantly attacked. Some were killed there and then while the
few lucky ones escaped with various degrees of injuries to report events. This triggered off
the riot." (Ishaq, no date)

The ensuing violence, which continued till around 30th of November 2008, took the pattern of

indigenes (or Christians) versus settlers (or Muslims). Even though both sides committed

the usual atrocities of murders and destruction of properties, it is believed that the settlers

(mostly Muslims) suffered the most casualties.

3.6.3 KURU JENTA/KURU KARAMA MASSACRE

Kuru karama (aka Kuru Jenta) is a small town located south of Jos on the way to the Heipang

Airport in Plateau State. On 19 January 2010, a group of armed men invaded and attacked the

town. Reports place the death toll at between 250 and 500 people (including women and

children), mostly Muslim residents (A Tunanina, 2010a). The central mosque and houses of

the Muslims were also burnt down; the attackers were Christian men from neighbouring areas.

The Civil Rights Congress in Nigeria reported that in the hours leading up to and during the

violence, over 150 text messages were sent out to civilians encouraging them to attack members

of the opposing side, whether it be Muslim or Christian (Hackett, 2011).

3.6.4DOGO NAHAWA, ZOT AND RATSAT MASSACRES

In the early morning hours of March 7, 2010, the three adjoining villages of Dogo Nahawa,

Zot and Ratsat located about 10 kilometres south of Jos, were attacked by a group of Fulani

herdsmen in hundreds. Reports say the herdsmen killed between 200 and 528 (depending on

12
the source) villagers including women and children, injured several others and burnt down most

of their houses. The massacre was apparently a revenge attack. Muslim Fulani herdsmen had

accused a group of local indigenous Christians - Berom people - of attacking their camp in the

previous month, killing four people and stealing 200 cattle.

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 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION

None of the cases mentioned in the previous chapter or any other ones in Nigeria have been

officially declared as genocides. Nigeria has been under much pressure from the international

community to address the issues of numerous Human right abuse cases that are abound in the

country. For example, the case of Ogoni and the execution of the 9 Ogoni men (Ken Saro-

Wiwa and others) led to the suspension of Nigeria from the Commonwealth of Nations and

also international sanctions. The Justice system in Nigeria leaves much to be desired, this may

be due to the prolonged Military rule Nigeria has had which were usually in the habit of

suspending the Constitution. This may be a contributing reason to why no prosecutions have

been made in a lot of the cases mentioned.

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) has

faced a number of limitations in administering the law against genocide. One of the difficulties

in the definition of genocide is the argument of what precisely the term in part means. Until

there are a sufficient number of cases of genocide tried in court, it is a topic of debate. Thus

far, there have not been many cases of genocide tried in court but as more perpetrators are tried

under international tribunals and municipal court cases, a body of legal arguments and legal

interpretations are helping to address these issues (Wikipedia, 2011b).

For the purpose of studies, it may be possible to draw conclusions whether the cases mentioned

in Nigeria can be considered genocides based on past cases e.g. Rwandan Genocide, the

Srebrenica Genocide, etc.

The testing criterion that will be used is the argument on the phrase in whole or in part that

is found in the definition of genocide.

"The determination of when the targeted part is substantial enough to meet this requirement
may involve a number of considerations. The numeric size of the targeted part of the group is

14
 the necessary and important starting point, though not in all cases the ending point of the
inquiry. The number of individuals targeted should be evaluated not only in absolute terms,
but also in relation to the overall size of the entire group. In addition to the numeric size of
the targeted portion, its prominence within the group can be a useful consideration. If a
specific part of the group is emblematic of the overall group, or is essential to its survival,
that may support a finding that the part qualifies as substantial within the meaning of Article
4 [of the Tribunal's Statute]." (Wikipedia, 2011b)

Following the above quote, it can be argued successfully that the crime of genocide has never actually

taken place in Nigeria (since Independence). This is so because first and foremost there has been no

record of a case of complete elimination of any group and where there appears to have been an attempt,

as in some of the cases mentioned in the previous chapter, the amount of people killed relative to the

total population of the group at the time could be considered as not being substantial enough.

Another conclusion can also be drawn from this research. For genocide to occur, it must be committed

with intent to destroy, in whole or in part. Almost all the massacres that have occurred in Nigeria do

not seem to have an intent to destroy motive. However, one stands out, the Kuru Karama massacre

(see section 3.6.3). The text messages sent out suggests that there was a desire to destroy the opposite

group and a plan was set in motion to carry it out.

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 REFERENCES

A Tunanina (2010a) Massacre at Kuru Jenta/Kuru Karama Available at:

http://carmenmccain.wordpress.com/2010/01/23/massacre-at-kuru-jentakuru-karama/

(Accessed: December 27, 2011)

A Tunanina (2010b) The Most recent violence in Plateau State Available at:

http://carmenmccain.wordpress.com/2010/03/08/the-most-recent-violence-in-plateau-state/

(Accessed: December 27, 2011)

Adebowale, Prince Abiodun Samuel (1997) OGONILAND: A GENOCIDE MUSEUM

Available at: http://www.uib.no/isf/people/campaign/genocide.htm (Accessed: December 9,

2011)

Amadi, Sam (2007) Colonial Legacy, Elite Dissension and the Making of Genocide: The

Story of Biafra Available at: http://howgenocidesend.ssrc.org/Amadi/ (Accessed: November

29, 2011)

Environmental Rights Action (2002) A blanket of silence, Images of the Odi Genocide

[Online] Available at: http://www.eraction.org/publications/silence.pdf (Accessed: December

9, 2011)

Hackett, Mark (2011) Genocide Alert for Nigeria Available at:

www.operationbrokensilence.org/?p=3063d (Accessed: October 27, 2011)

Human rights watch (2001) Nigeria: Soldiers Massacre Civilians in Revenge Attack in Benue

State Available at: http://www.essex.ac.uk/armedcon/story_id/001267.html (Accessed:

December 22, 2011)

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Ishaq, Muhammad Lawal (no date) Another View of the Jos Genocide Available at:

http://www.gamji.com/article8000/NEWS8359.htm (Accessed: December 22, 2011)

Nwaobi, Godwin Chukwudum (no date) THE NIGERIAN WARS, REGIONAL CRISES AND

ETHNIC DISTURBANCES: POLICY RESPONSES AND DEMOCRATIC IMPLICATIONS

[Online] Available at: http://quanterb.org/nwaobiwar.pdf (Accessed: November 21, 2011)

Osinubi, Tokunbo Simbowale and Osinubi, Oladipupo Sunday (2006) Ethnic Conflicts in

Contemporary Africa: The Nigerian Experience [Online] Available at:

http://www.eisf.eu/resources/library/ejss_nigconflict_1.pdf (Accessed: November 21, 2011)

WGSR staff (2010) Genocidal Massacres in Plateau State Central Nigeria, including Direct

Reports from Nigeria, and a Nigeria Timeline Available at:

http://genocidepreventionnow.org/Home/GPNIssues/Issue2Spring2010/tabid/71/ctl/DisplayA

rticle/mid/482/aid/61/Default.aspx (Accessed: December 27, 2011)

Wikipedia (2011a) 1966 anti-Igbo pogrom Available at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_Northern_Nigeria_pogrom (Accessed: December 5, 2011)

Wikipedia (2011b) Genocide Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide (Accessed:

October 12, 2011)

Wikipedia (2011c) Genocide definitions Available at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide_definitions (Accessed: October 12, 2011)

Wikipedia (2011d) Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People Available at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movement_for_the_Survival_of_the_Ogoni_People (Accessed:

December 12, 2011)

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Wikipedia (2011e) Nigerian Civil War Available at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Civil_War (Accessed: December 5, 2011)

Wikipedia (2011f) Odi Massacre Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odi_massacre

(Accessed: December 9, 2011)

Wikipedia (2011g) Yelwa Massacre Available at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelwa_massacre (Accessed: December 9, 2011)

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