Speak Up: Urge Obama to denounce war crimes by Nigeria's military

Act quickly. PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/GettyImages Amnesty International has uncovered evidence of a surge in gruesome executions in Nigeria. I have reviewed the video footage, and it is horrifying. President Obama is meeting with African leaders TODAY to discuss peace and regional stability. Send Obama this message: Confront Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan about these atrocities, and demand a swift, independent investigation into war crimes. Dear Tracy, Graphic evidence of war crimes is not easy to watch. In one video, 16 boys and young men are seated in a line, in front of a pit, likely outside of Maiduguri. There are some trees nearby. One by one, they are called forward to lie down at the edge of the pit. As their heads and feet are held down, the rest of the group looks on, blankly. There is no resistance - no audible cries from the victims. One by one the throats of the boys and men are cut with a large knife, and their bodies are rolled into the pit atop those that were executed before them. The executions are systematic, and the motions seem almost perfunctory. I am an Amnesty International investigator. I am no stranger to the reality of human rights abuses. But the gruesome video footage of executions by Nigeria's military has left me almost at a loss for words. What I have seen - again and again - is incontrovertible evidence of war crimes. President Obama is hosting the first-ever US-Africa Summit this week. Sign Amnesty's petition urging Obama to call for an immediate, impartial investigation into these heinous attacks. Please, don't turn away. Speak up now to defend the people of Nigeria. Other footage shows a mass arrest of alleged Boko Haram members. Dozens were ordered to lie down and beaten with sticks and machetes. They were then brought to their communities and shot dead, their corpses dumped around town. As the bloody insurgency waged by Boko Haram since 2009 has intensified, so, too, has the brutality of the Nigerian government's response. There were 600 executions by the military on one day alone, the result of a rampage following a Boko Haram attack on a military detention center. More than 4,000 people have been killed this year by the Nigerian military and Boko Haram. The Nigerian people desperately need the help of human rights activists like you right now. Tell Obama: Look at this footage. Do not deny this suffering. Hold Nigeria's government accountable now. The people in Northwest Nigeria are caught between the ruthless attacks by Boko Haram and the routine murderous brutality of the Nigerian military. Nigerians have no where to run, no one to trust. Defend their humanity. Sign this Amnesty petition now. Thank you for all you do to promote human rights, Scott Edwards Managing Director, Crisis Prevention and Response Amnesty International USA