Amnesty International has criticised the reinstatement of a
Nigerian general it accuses of war crimes in the fight against Boko Haram.
The campaign group named Maj Gen Ahmadu Mohammed and eight
other officers in a report last year, accusing the military of killing more
than 8,000 detainees.
"It is unthinkable" to recall the officer, who was
sacked in 2014, before an inquiry had even begun, it said.
The military is investigating the allegations, a spokesman
told the BBC.
"These are just allegations - until proven, no-one
should be punished unnecessarily," military spokesman General Rabe
Abubakar said, confirming that Gen Mohammed had been reinstated.
Amnesty says Gen Mohammed was "in command of operations
when the military executed more than 640 detainees following a Boko Haram
attack on the detention centre in Giwa barracks on 14 March 2014".
He was sacked for unrelated reasons before recently being
reinstated.
"Major General Mohammed must be investigated for
participating in, sanctioning or failing to prevent the deaths of hundreds of
people," Amnesty's secretary general Salil Shetty said in a statement.
But Gen Abubakar said the allegations were being
investigated. The London-based group said since March 2011, more than 8,000
young men and boys have been either shot, starved, suffocated or tortured to death
in military custody and no-one has been held responsible.
President Muhammad Buhari promised to look into the issue
when he came to power last year.
Boko Haram's Islamist insurgency has claimed thousands of
lives and displaced more than two million people over the past six years.
In the latest incident, at least 65 people were killed and
136 injured when militants attacked the north-eastern Dalori village on
Saturday night.
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