Global activists and celebrities on Thursday hit out at the Nigerian government over a violent crackdown on peaceful #EndSARS protesters demonstrating against police brutality two months ago, The Punch reports.
In an open letter addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari and made public in Lagos to coincide with International Human Rights Day, 60 activists condemned the government for “unwarranted force against its own unarmed citizens.”
Writing under the auspices of Diaspora Rising, which calls itself an advocacy body formed to strengthen “bonds among members of the global Black family”, the activists called for the release of jailed protesters as well as the prosecution of security operatives responsible for shooting civilians in Lagos.
They also urged the government to lift a ban on public demonstrations.
Among the signatories were the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr, Bernice King; US activist Opal Tometi, actors Danny Glover and Kerry Washington, Swedish teenage eco-warrior Greta Thunberg, singer Alicia Keys, civil rights campaigner Angela Davis, US congresswoman Ilhan Omar, and Nigerian-American rapper Jidenna.
Tometi, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement in the US and founder of Diaspora Rising, described Nigeria’s response to the protests as “very shameful”.
“Instead of showing up alongside (the people), the government went to suppress them, went to squelch the protest, and stamp it out,” she said.