At least 13 protesters have been killed during mass protests in Nigeria over the country's economic crisis, a rights group claimed Friday. Nigeria's police chief defended the security forces, saying they had acted professionally.
Security forces fired gunshots and used tear gas to quell mass protests across Nigeria on Thursday, as thousands of mainly young people rallied against the country's worst cost-of-living crisis for years.
Authorities confirmed four people were killed by a bomb and hundreds arrested.
Kaduna state police spokesperson Mansur Hassan said on Thursday that the police had fired tear gas at protesters but had not used live ammunition.
Two people were killed in northern Niger state where protesters clashed with security forces after blocking a major road the local Daily Trust newspaper reported.
Amnesty International’s Nigeria director Isa Sanusi said that it independently verified the 13 deaths that were reported by witnesses, families of the victims and lawyers.
In a statement released on Friday, police chief Kayode Egbetokun said his officers had not violated the “fundamental rights” of any of the protesters.
Increasing hardship
Protesters began demonstrating on Thursday in Abuja, the commercial capital Lagos and several other cities over economic reforms that have led to rampant inflation and inflicted increasing hardship on ordinary Nigerians.
"Citizens have come out because there is extreme hunger and abject poverty in the country," civil rights activist Taiwo Otitolaye told RFI. "Households don't have enough to live on. Families are taking their children out of school, so the first day of this movement is a good thing."
The "day of rage" saw youths demonstrating in the city of Maiduguri, the hotbed of a militant insurgency in the northeast of the country, in the face of a heavy security presence.
In Kano, the country's second-largest city, protesters set fire to tyres outside the state governor's office and police responded with tears gas.
Live broadcasts from the protests showed some protestors looting warehouses and damaging public property.
Three governors declared curfews in their states, saying that thugs had hijacked the protests.
'This hunger is too much': Nigerians protest economic hardship
Tinuba reforms
Inspired by protests in Kenya in June that led to the government there scrapping some planned tax increases, Nigerians are mobilising online in a protest movement tagged #EndbadGovernanceinNigeria.
After taking office more than a year ago, President Bola Tinubu removed some fuel subsidies, devalued the naira currency and later hiked electricity tariffs. As a result, inflation has soared past 34 percent.
The president insists the changes are needed to keep the country afloat.
On the eve of the protests, government officials had urged young activists to reject Kenya-style rallies and allow time for Tinubu's reforms to take hold and improve the economy.
But citizens complain that politicians are not making enough sacrifices themselves, and demand the reinstatement of subsidies for petrol and electricity, free primary and secondary education.
They also want measures to combat widespread insecurity, which has damaged the farming sector, while armed gangs kidnap residents and school children for ransom in the north.
Boko Haram are suspected to be behind a bombing which killed at least 16 people on Wednesday.
Attacks kill at least 160 people in central Nigeria
Labour unions have led previous protests. But Thursday's march was mostly by unemployed youth.
Tinubu signed a new minimum wage into law on Monday to help workers cope with hardship, but many of the country's 200 million people are either self-employed or do not have jobs.
Protest leaders, a loose coalition of civil society groups, vowed to press on with rallies.
"It's not over," said activist Damilare Adenola, 29, leader the Take It Back group in Abuja.
(with newswires)
