UN condemns Chad’s execution of 10 Boko Haram fighters

The UN main human rights office has criticised Chad’s execution of 10 Boko Haram fighters by firing squad.

According to Associated Press, Cecile Pouilly of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) called on the West African country’s government to introduce a moratorium on the death penalty.

Pouilly said the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) officials were not granted access to Friday’s trial.

She said it wasn’t clear if the defendants had access to lawyers, adding that the venue of the trial was changed for security reasons, and also reduced from eight to two days.

Chad recently lifted its moratorium on the capital punishment to counter terrorism in a new bill passed into law in July.

Mahamat Mustapha, a Nigerian, and nine others were executed Saturday for crimes including murder and the use of explosives following suicide attacks in the capital, N’Djamena, in June and July, which killed dozens of people.

Boko Haram is recorded to have killed at least 17,000 people since its radicalisation in 2009, after the death of its founder, Mohammed Yusuf in detention.