Title: Applying International Humanitarian Law Rules to the Non-International Armed Conflict in Northern Nigeria
Abstract: It is trite that before the rules of international humanitarian law can be applied to any conflict there must be in existence an armed conflict whether it is an internal armed conflict or an international armed conflict. This need to characterize a conflict is a sine qua-non for the operation of the law of armed conflict which is not left to the whims and caprices of state actors or armed groups but which has clear guidelines and thresholds which must be reached before an armed conflict can be said to exist as opposed to internal disturbances or other situations of violence not amounting to an armed conflict. The Nigerian state has been embroiled in a violent confrontation with the Boko-Haram sect and the question has arisen as to whether the confrontation amounts to an armed conflict. The initial attempt to downplay the conflict as an internal disturbance was intended to exclude the operation of the rules of international humanitarian law but following the characterization of the conflict as an internal armed conflict by the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC, the question has been finally laid to rest. This paper sets out the threshold requirements required for a violent conflict to be classified as an armed conflict and the necessary obligations resulting from such a classification for all the parties to the conflict. It submits that this characterization places obligations on the armed forces of Nigeria and the insurgents to respect the laws of armed conflict or risk prosecution for war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law.
Publication Year: 2017
Publication Date: 2017-07-16
Language: en
Type: article
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