SPECIAL REPORT-How the Nigerian military fatally shot a young captive

All military operations must be carried out in accordance with international humanitarian law, it said, and any foreign security unit credibly implicated in “a gross violation of human rights” would be ineligible for U.S. military assistance. To shed light on the 2015 killing of the unarmed young man, journalists interviewed eight people – Nigerian security force members and residents – who said they witnessed or participated in the battle against Boko Haram that day.

Bloodied and covered in dust, the unarmed youth sat alone in the back of a pickup truck. A man in Nigerian military fatigues prodded him from the vehicle as others shouted insults. “Bastard!” yelled one person. “One of them!” said another.

After a few steps, the gunman, bearing an AK-47 assault rifle, forced the nervous-looking young man to the ground, face first into the yellow earth. The youth, clad only in blue shorts with white stripes, turned to look back at the shooter. The gunman raised his weapon and fired seven shots. Dust and blood sprayed into the air. After a brief pause, the gunman fired two more rounds, leaving the slender youth motionless next to two other bodies in the dirt.

Male voices cheered. The slaying of the unidentified young man might never have come to light. But the 2015 incident was captured on a 25-second video obtained by Reuters from two independent sources who said it was taken on an army operation in Nigeria’s northeast in a battle against the Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram. The footage was passed around among troops, as videos and pictures of battlefield conquests often are, but has not been released publicly before.

Analysis of the video by Reuters and Bellingcat, a Netherlands-based investigative journalism group, verified that it was filmed just inside the Abogo Largema Military Cantonment, a barracks south of Biu town, in Borno state, on Jan. 14, 2015, around midday. Abogo Largema is home to the 231 Tank Battalion and the 331 Artillery Regiment, parts of the Nigerian Army’s 3 Division. Both were involved in repelling an insurgent attack on the military barracks that day, according to social media posts about the battle and three witness accounts. The uniform of the shooter and the location at the base indicate he was a member of the Nigerian military, likely an army soldier. At least 17 bodies were laid out at the base later that afternoon and captured in photographs that accompanied internet posts touting the military victory. Some of those images were posted by the military itself.

Among the dead was a young man in blue shorts, most likely the youth shot in the video, according to a Bellingcat visual analysis. The video provides gruesome documentation of tactics Nigeria’s military has used in its ongoing 14-year war against Islamist insurgents. It also furnishes rare, direct evidence of an extrajudicial killing at the hands of security forces – one that three experts consulted by Reuters deemed a war crime. Killing the youth in this way violated the Geneva Conventions, they said, because he was clearly unarmed and in custody, posing no immediate threat to the military. In legal terms, he was "hors de combat," or outside of combat.

The video undermines the Nigerian military’s assertion in an interview with Reuters in December that it has adhered to domestic and international laws protecting civilians and others not actively engaged in combat during its fight against Islamist insurgents in the northeast. "This video captures a war crime, no doubt,” said Luis Moreno Ocampo, a former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague and one of the experts in international law who reviewed the video for Reuters. “It is a willful killing.”

See graphic "The scene of the slaying" Even if the young man had been a Boko Haram fighter at some point – something Reuters could not determine – people who have ceased to take part in hostilities are protected from violence and mistreatment under the Geneva Conventions, including murder, the experts told Reuters. Nigeria is a signatory.

"Whether or not this young man was taking part in hostilities is irrelevant," said Melanie O’Brien, president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars. "It is still a war crime to shoot him in the way that they did." The Nigerian government and military – including the presidency, Ministry of Defence, defence headquarters and army leaders – did not respond to detailed questions for this story.

MOUNTING ALLEGATIONS OF ATROCITIES Ocampo said a question for an ICC prosecutor in this case would be whether the killing was an isolated incident, resulting from the actions of a single member of the Nigerian security forces, or part of a pattern of wartime abuses that can be linked to the broader military leadership. The ICC would likely not intervene in an isolated case, but if a pattern was established and the Nigerian authorities did not investigate it, the court would have grounds to look into the responsibility of the chain of command, he said.

The video comes to light as allegations of atrocities by Nigerian defence forces are mounting – some of which have already caught the attention of the ICC. In a series published in December, Reuters described dozens of killings over years by the army of children and teenagers throughout the northeast. The news organisation also exposed a secret, military-run program in which thousands of women and girls underwent abortions after being freed from sexual slavery under Boko Haram and its now-dominant offshoot, Islamic State West Africa Province. Many of the terminations were carried out without the person’s prior knowledge or consent, according to dozens of witness accounts.

At the time, Reuters’ findings were categorically denied by the Nigerian government and top military officials. They are now being investigated by the country’s state-funded National Human Rights Commission, which did not respond to a request for comment for this story. General Christopher Musa, then the top commander of the counterinsurgency campaign in the northeast and now Nigeria’s defence chief, told Reuters last November that the army complies with international laws prohibiting attacks on civilians and noncombatants. In cases where suspected collaborators are unarmed, Musa said: “We capture them, we hold them, and then we take them for the legal system to take its course.”

Musa said the military also adheres to its own rules of engagement and to training on human rights provided by the United States, Britain and the United Nations. He did not respond to questions for this story, but he said a panel set up by the human rights commission was investigating “all allegations.” In a series of messages on Twitter in 2019, the Nigerian Army condemned a “gory video” that it said reportedly depicted its personnel engaged in the extrajudicial killing of a Boko Haram suspect. It said it warns troops against such unprofessional conduct, adding that when these kinds of incidents are confirmed, perpetrators are usually punished immediately.

In June, Reuters reported on a January airstrike in central Nigeria that killed dozens of Fulani herders, citing it as an example of repeated aerial attacks over years by the military that have claimed the lives of people not actively involved in armed conflict. The government and military did not reply to Reuters’ requests for comment at the time. In the wake of the bombing, the Nigerian Air Force told the U.S.-based nonprofit Human Rights Watch that it carried out the strike based “on credible intelligence,” specifically surveillance footage showing the movement of “suspected terrorists,” the nonprofit said.

Various entities have accused Nigerian security forces of other abuses in connection with killings of civilians and captives. In a report published in 2015, five months after the attack on Biu, Amnesty International found that Nigerian forces had extrajudicially executed more than 1,200 people since the insurgency began. The Nigerian government ultimately dropped an investigation into these accusations, finding insufficient evidence to support any abuses by its officers.

In 2020, after a decade of preliminary examination, the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC said there was “a reasonable basis to believe” that war crimes and crimes against humanity had been committed in the conflict by Nigerian security forces, as well as by Islamist insurgents. The ICC has yet to open a formal investigation. In response to a request for comment, the office said it was engaging with the new Nigerian government that took office earlier this year about the “next steps to be taken regarding accountability for the alleged crimes committed in Nigeria, and to find ways to deepen cooperation in addressing these crimes.”

With respect to the killing depicted in the 2015 video, the office said it could not comment on specific incidents "at this stage." The United States has been among the staunchest allies of the Nigerian military in its fight against Islamist insurgents, but the relationship has proved fraught when allegations of human rights abuses surface. The U.S. State Department routinely flags reports of “arbitrary, unlawful, or extrajudicial killings” by government forces in Nigeria, including the army, in annual human rights reports.

In a statement, the department said it was only made aware of the Biu incident recently through the Reuters inquiry and was seeking more information about it. “We urge Nigerian authorities to investigate these allegations in a timely and transparent manner, and to hold those responsible to account,” the department said. All military operations must be carried out in accordance with international humanitarian law, it said, and any foreign security unit credibly implicated in “a gross violation of human rights” would be ineligible for U.S. military assistance.

To shed light on the 2015 killing of the unarmed young man, journalists interviewed eight people – Nigerian security force members and residents – who said they witnessed or participated in the battle against Boko Haram that day. Five said they were at the barracks gate where the youth was killed and recognised photos of the scene posted on social media. Some were part of a government-allied militia called the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), formed the previous year to protect the community against Boko Haram. Four security force members said the commander who led the battle that day was M.O. Agi. Two independent regional security experts who researched the matter for Reuters said his full name is Michael Oluoha Agi, now the brigadier general in charge of the 3 Division garrison. He could not be reached for comment.

Reuters and Bellingcat could not ascertain who took the video. The journalists took extensive measures to identify the shooter – through sources in Biu, internet postings and image searches, army announcements and social media networks – but were unable to confirm his identity. The reporters also sought to identify the youth by showing multiple sources photos of what was likely his body, among others, on the ground, as well as a frame shot of his face from the video. No one recognised him. But sources were able to provide context for the fighting that day and its aftermath, with some suggesting the youth was not the only one to be slain in custody.

Two security force members told Reuters they saw multiple prisoners brought out of the barracks and shot after the fighting ceased. Both said the captives, who were shot at a different location from where the youth was killed, were not part of the day’s hostilities: They had been detained days or weeks before because they were suspected of having ties to Boko Haram. The commanding officer ordered us to go and sweep them; that means ‘take them to the killing ground,’” said one of the security force members, explaining how he and his comrades removed the prisoners in a group from the barracks.

“They gave me one person to kill, and I shot him,” he said. ATTACK ON BIU

On Jan. 14, 2015, Boko Haram fighters entered Biu just before sunrise – between about 5:30 a.m. and 6 a.m., witnesses said. From their motorbikes and vehicles, the militants sprayed bullets and hurled grenades. “They came shouting ‘Allahu akbar’ (God is greatest) and shooting everywhere,” Yahaya Mshelliza, a resident, told Reuters at the time. Reuters could not reach him for this story.

See graphic

"How the attack unfolded" CJTF members immediately reported for duty alongside regular soldiers, according to security force sources.

Boko Haram fighters attacked a police headquarters in the east of Biu, and some headed south to the main military base, according to five sources, including one who participated in the fighting at the barracks. Witnesses to the battle said security forces fought back hard, overwhelming the Boko Haram fighters with their greater numbers and superior firepower. The battle was over after several hours – some social media posts said well before 11 a.m. Defence headquarters in Abuja declared victory at 11:17 a.m. (10:17 GMT) on a military-run Twitter account, saying a “terrorist attack” had been “repelled” by the military.

A tweet from headquarters at 11:23 a.m. said troops were pursuing “fleeing terrorists” and carrying out a “mopping up operation.” Soldiers picked up people they suspected of being or having links to militants and transported them to the barracks, according to security force witnesses. Three witnesses, who were in various locations at various times, said they saw from three to 18 captured insurgents among those transported.

A security force member who was in the field said some of those transported to the base were alive, though hurt. “There were around three vehicles that transported Boko Haram to the military base,” he said. “There was a mix of dead and injured.”

Another security force member, who was at the base after the fighting was over, said “jubilant” government soldiers and militia fighters returned to the barracks. “We saw people who had been arrested, and some were injured,” he said. At around noon, the youth in blue shorts was led from a truck just inside the wall around the barracks, according to a Bellingcat analysis of solar data and shadow angles in the video. The time is an estimate, accurate to within about an hour. The slaying likely occurred around the same time or after defence headquarters said the attack had been repelled, Bellingcat found.

The shooter in the video fired nine shots at the youth, according to analyses done for Reuters by three forensic audio experts. “Morale!” shouted a voice on the video, a rallying cry often used by the Nigerian Army on the front lines. BODIES AT THE BARRACKS

By early afternoon, photographs of a group of bodies began circulating on social media purporting to show the aftermath of the attack. At least 17 bodies, lined up in two rows, were displayed just inside the outer wall, according to photos posted online and verified by Reuters and Bellingcat. Some of the corpses were laid out with genitals in view.

No international law specifically prohibits taking photographs of those killed in war. The Geneva Conventions were drawn up before the existence of social media, which makes the public display of such images easier and more commonplace. However, two experts in humanitarian law said that displaying and photographing the bodies in this way, and posting the images on social media, could constitute “outrages upon personal dignity,” which is a war crime. Such cases have been successfully prosecuted, they said. One resident said he took notes on the casualties for a local humanitarian organisation. He counted 37 bodies just inside the wall. Some bodies had been brought from elsewhere in town, he said.

Visual analyses by Bellingcat and two forensic pathologists suggested that some of the bodies had been transported from a different location and dragged into position next to the youth. The finding was based in part on social media posts showing some of the bodies in pickup trucks, as well as physical evidence of dragging, such as the position of clothing, injuries to the bodies and disturbance of rocks nearby. The day after the battle, more images from the scene were posted on Twitter by Nigeria’s director of defence information at the time, Major General Chris Olukolade. The images remain there today. Defence headquarters published the same photos on its website, however the link is no longer available.

Using satellite imagery, Bellingcat confirmed that the photos of the lined-up bodies posted by defence headquarters and other social media users were taken just inside Abogo Largema Military Cantonment – at the same spot where the video of the youth’s killing was filmed. One photo posted online by defence headquarters and on the former spokesman’s Twitter account shows the body of a young man in blue shorts laid out alongside the others. He is too far away for his wounds to be seen.

In pictures of the same bodies posted by others on social media, however, the young man bears wounds and other marks that match those visible in the video, Bellingcat found. Reporters were unable to identify the other bodies in the pictures. They also were unable to confirm the name of the shooter in the video. The shooter is likely the same man who appears in several social media photos, standing among other military personnel by the dead bodies, easily recognizable by his light-coloured uniform, green camouflage jacket and green cap.

Soldiers on the front lines that day came from the 231 Tank Battalion and the 331 Artillery Regiment, both based in Biu, according to security force members and social media posts. The identification marks on the rifle held by the shooter in the video appear consistent with those seen on other rifles from the 331 Artillery Regiment, Bellingcat found. Some Nigerian troops called attention to themselves, boasting online about the military conquests that day.

One was a soldier who identified himself on Facebook as Emmanuel Emeka. He could not be reached for comment. On Feb. 12, a month after the battle, Emeka posted two photos of himself at the site in front of the bodies. Both appear to depict the youth who was slain on video: In one, his blue shorts are visible; in the other, just his upper body can be seen. The battalion number 231 is stamped on the butt of his rifle.

Emeka, who describes himself in his Facebook profile as a rifleman in the Nigerian Army, included a comment in Nigerian English. “Am proud to be war guro,” he wrote, referring to someone good at warfare. “Killing more on my mind.”

“They forgot we’re tougher and more ruthless than de are," he said. “This is just de beginning.” (Reade Levinson, David Lewis and Tim Cocks reported for Reuters, and Carlos Gonzales reported for Bellingcat. Additional reporting by Paul Carsten, Daphne Psaledakis and Stephanie van den Berg of Reuters and Youri van der Weide of Bellingcat; Editing by Julie Marquis and Alexandra Zavis of Reuters)