Nigerian police fired shots in the air to break up protests in the capital Abuja on Friday as rights group Amnesty International accused security forces of killing at least 13 demonstrators during nationwide rallies against economic hardship.
Curfews were in place across several northern states and there was a heavy security presence on the second day of the demonstrations.
An AFP photographer saw police in Abuja firing rifle shots over the heads of protesters in the city centre, while security forces scattered hundreds of protesters using tear gas.
“We were ruthlessly dispersed, but I think that it only made us more resolute,” said 29-year-old activist Damilare Adenola, leader of the Take It Back group organising protests in Abuja.
“Hunger is the greatest motivation of this protest — that is why we are calling for the end of bad governance.”
The turnout was lower than on Thursday, when thousands took to the streets in cities across the country calling for the government to reduce fuel prices and tackle Nigeria’s worst economic crisis in a generation.
Africa’s most populous country is battling high inflation and a tumbling naira after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ended a fuel subsidy and liberalised the currency more than a year ago in reforms the government says will improve the economy in the long term.
Dubbed #EndbadGovernanceinNigeria, the protest movement won support with an online campaign, but officials had warned against attempts to follow the same path as recent violent demonstrations in Kenya, where protesters forced the government to abandon new taxes.
Nigerian protest leaders have vowed to press ahead with rallies in the coming days despite warnings from the authorities.
Police said they had made hundreds of arrests across the country including 269 people they accused of “destruction, looting, and instigating chaos” in the northern city Kano on Thursday.
Anietie Ewang, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, said she was concerned by “reports of excessive use of force by Nigerian security forces” and urged the authorities to listen to protesters.
‘Red alert’
In a statement on X Friday, Amnesty International said security forces killed six people in Suleja near the capital, four in the northeastern city of Maiduguri and three in Kaduna in the northwest the previous day.
“Our findings, so far, show that security personnel at the locations where lives were lost deliberately used tactics designed to kill while dealing with gatherings of people protesting hunger and deep poverty,” Amnesty said.
Conflicting accounts have emerged over the number of deaths and police in Maiduguri told AFP four people died in explosions, without providing details.
On Thursday, the national police chief rejected claims that officers had attacked peaceful protesters and said one officer had been killed and others injured, without providing details.
In a statement on X, Inspector General Kayode Egbetokun said he had “placed all units on red alert” to respond to “further threats to public safety and order.”
Kano was calmer on Friday following intense clashes between police and protesters the previous day, but residents said hundreds of people demonstrated in the nearby town of Minjibir.
Officials have imposed a curfew in Kano as well as in the northern states Yobe, Katsina, Borno and Jigawa.
In Nigeria’s economic hub Lagos, a few dozen protesters gathered in the Ojota area on Friday.
Around 1,000 people marched peacefully in the mainland area on Thursday, chanting “Tinubu Ole”, using the Yoruba language word for thief.
Nigerians are struggling with high costs — food inflation is at 40 percent and fuel has tripled in price since a year ago — but many people were also wary about insecurity around protests.
Nigeria’s protests come after Kenyan President William Ruto was forced to repeal new taxes and name a new cabinet following weeks of anti-government protests in the worst crisis in his almost two years in office.
