[JURIST] A spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Tuesday condemned [press release] the recent violence [BBC report] in the town of Baga in northeastern Nigeria committed by the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram [BBC backgrounder]. The release states that Boko Haram has been operating in this town since January 3 and has engaged in mass killings and displacements, in violation of international law. The UN referred to the attacks as particularly shocking, given children as young as 10 were forced to carry out attacks and the elderly have been specifically targeted by the group. The statement urged the Nigerian government “to act swiftly to restore law and order.” Other advocacy groups have also condemned the violence. The UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) [official website] issued a statement [press release] earlier this week that mentioned the use of children in the attacks and stated these attacks should “galvanize effective action.” Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] released satellite images showing the horrific scale of the attack [press release]. It has been estimated that more than 2,000 people have been massacred in the recent attacks [CNN backgrounder] and thousands have been displaced from their homes.

Boko Haram [JURIST news archive], which means “Western education is a sin,” has been fighting to overthrow the Nigerian government in the interest of creating an Islamist state. Last year Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] reported [JURIST report] that Boko Haram had forced kidnapped women and girls to marry their captors and began using them for military tactical purposes. Boko Haram was criticized [JURIST report] in May by the OHCHR after it claimed responsibility for kidnapping more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls in April and announced plans to sell and “marry them off.” US President Obama promised to send resources for investigatory purposes, sharply criticizing the perpetrators and calling Boko Haram “one of the worst regional or local terrorist organizations … in Nigeria.” However, Boko Haram’s actions have caused other extrinsic problems as well. In March Amnesty International released a report finding that some responses by Nigerian security forces to attacks by Boko Haram have themselves been in conflict with human rights standards [JURIST report]. Earlier in March former UN Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay called on [JURIST report] the Nigerian government to focus on protecting human rights and not to “exacerbate” violence in its response to attacks by Boko Haram. In August of 2013 the International Criminal Court expressed its finding [JURIST report] that there existed a “reasonable basis” to believe that Boko Haram was guilty of crimes against humanity.