GUE/NGL MEP Matt Carthy has expressed the GUE/NGL's strong condemnation of Boko Haram's recent massacre which saw over 2000 people horrifically murdered over the course of several days in Northern Nigeria.

Speaking this afternoon in a European Parliament debate on the violence, he said: “Our thoughts are first and foremost with those who are bereaved and who were caught up in this almost unimaginable violence. The Nigerian government and state security forces were simply unfit to intervene.

“It must be noted that the Nigerian state is not exempt from responsibility for the recent escalations of violence through a series of deplorable human rights abuses. At least 950 suspected members of Boko Haram died as a result of overcrowding, starvation, brutality, and extrajudicial executions while in state custody in Nigeria in the first half of 2013 alone.

“That being said, nothing could possibly excuse the actions of Boko Haram: to strap a bomb to a child and detonate it is an indefensible act that has shocked probably even the most seasoned of conflict observers.”

The Irish MEP added: “We now all have a moral responsibility to show the same outrage and invest the same resources in addressing the causes and consequences of these atrocities as we would if they were happening anywhere else in the world.

“In a week when this house has rightly defended media freedom of speech, we must also state that international media organisations have a moral duty to bring the situation in Nigeria to prominent public attention in Europe and across the world. Only then will we force governments to contribute positively and in a measured manner to the quest for stability and justice in the region.”

GUE/NGL Press Contacts:
Emily Macintosh +32 470 85 05 08
Gay Kavanagh +32 473 84 23 20
European United Left / Nordic Green Left
European Parliamentary Group