It has become imperative for civil society organisations in Nigeria to call the world’s attention to the current spate of killings across the country. From the North, South, East and West of Nigeria, children have been orphaned, spouses have been widowed, families have lost breadwinners (including an increase in female headed households) and in some extreme cases, entire communities have severelly affected.

From the North, South, East and West of Nigeria, some children are now orphan having lost their parents to conflict, some spouses now widows as well, families have lost breadwinners (including an increase in female headed households) and in some extreme cases, entire communities have severely affected.

Going by media reports, this year alone has recorded about 3,000 deaths resulting from conflicts among suspected herdsmen and farmers’ crisis, the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency, the killings by cultists, deaths from cattle rustling, armed robbery, and ethnic militia across Nigerian communities. This number is just a fraction of the totality of persons lost this year.

The CLEEN Foundation is gravely concerned about this spate of unprecedented killings and deaths across the country and joins other civil society organisations across the country in mourning the dead.

CLEEN Foundation acknowledges and deeply appreciates government efforts targeted towards addressing the challenges of insecurity, particularly in the areas of insurgency and Herder-Farmers’ conflicts. However, it is worried that despite these efforts, the killings have continued unabated. This is a pointer to the urgent need for the state to address these occurrences through a more pragmatic, broad-based and coherent operational approach.

Increasingly, the narrative that the state through its security institutions is unable to effectively contain the menace is beginning to take centre stage; leading to a near loss of confidence in the ability of the state security apparatus to stop the killings across the land.

For us, the state remains the ultimate duty-bearer charged with the responsibility to protect its citizens and it must therefore ensure a safe country through addressing (timely) incidences and perpetrators set to threaten the peace and security of the populace.

As we join other Nigerians and colleagues in the wider civil society space and the world at large to mourn Nigerians who have lost their lives in different conflicts in the country, we use this occasion to make the following demands to the Nigerian government:

• Quickly address the endless killings of her citizens in all parts of the country.
• Deploy other mechanisms beyond its current use of force to address the killings and prevent further killings of its citizens,
• The Nigerian government must strengthen her conflict-resolution mechanisms and put in place long-term initiatives that will bring true reconciliation and lasting peace and institute peace-building measures especially in conflict-prone communities.
• The state must urgently address injustice to all victims and to the aggrieved families and should ensure speedy dispensation of justice.
• Those who have committed the criminal acts of killings in Nigeria must be immediately brought to justice

To our colleagues within the civil society space, we urge everyone to organize around the following actions for the commemoration of this day:

• Wear black clothes & get colleagues/staff to do same. Take pictures & share online.
• If funds exist, get a poster done and put in front of your office.
• Observe a minute of silence at noon.
• If you have names for those who have died in your state, read them out & say a prayer!
• If you have a flag, fly it at half-mast.
• Organise social media engagement using the hashtags created to generate awareness.

Design social-media posters for online engagements#NigeriaMourns #NationalDayOfMourning #OneDeathTooMany #WeAreAllWeHaveMay God heal our people. CLEEN Foundation!