Oluwafunbi Bello 
LAGOS, Nigeria – The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) have called on United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, to invoke Article 99 of the UN Charter over Nigeria’s worsening security crisis.
In an open letter dated May 30, SERAP argued that escalating violence, mass abductions, killings and displacement across several states now constitute a threat to international peace and security.
“Nigeria’s escalating insecurity and grave human rights violations are reflected in repeated abductions, killings, attacks on civilians and mass displacement,” SERAP stated in a statement on Sunday.
The group cited attacks in Oyo, Benue, Borno, Plateau, Kaduna, Zamfara, Katsina and Adamawa states as evidence of a rapidly deteriorating security environment.
According to SERAP, Article 99 was specifically designed to address emerging crises requiring preventive diplomacy and coordinated international action.
“The scale, persistence and regional implications of the insecurity and grave human rights crisis in Nigeria pose a threat to international peace and security,” the organisation stated.
SERAP referenced recent school abductions in Oyo State, attacks on farming communities and bombings in Borno State as examples of violence driving humanitarian suffering and displacement.
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