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LAGOS, May 26, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Protests called by one of Nigeria's main
separatist groups over the past four years have resulted in more than 700
deaths, a local intelligence think tank said in a report Monday.

The outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement -- which is pushing
for the independence of Nigeria's southeast, where a bloody civil war was
fought in the late 1960s -- regularly calls for stay-at-home protests.

Originally presented as non-violent protests, they have been hijacked by
armed groups that target establishments and people perceived to be linked to
the government.

"Individuals or groups enforcing the order, sometimes armed, have engaged in
acts such as setting fire to commercial vehicles and attacking those who defy
the directive, creating an atmosphere where compliance is often driven by
fear," said SBM Intelligence, a consultancy in Lagos.

"The sit-at-home protests, enforced by IPOB since 2021, have transformed from
a symbolic act of dissent into a protracted crisis with devastating
socioeconomic and security consequences for Southeast Nigeria," it said.

SBM estimates that the southeastern region has "suffered staggering losses,
including 7.6 trillion naira ($4.8 billion) in economic damage, 776
fatalities".

Disruptions to education, governance and livelihoods have become systemic, it
said.

The IPOB group routinely denies it is behind attacks, which have also been
carried out by criminal gangs and political rivals using the group's name.

Its spokesman did not respond to an AFP request for comment on the report
findings.

The Nigerian government has banned IPOB as a terrorist organisation and
accused it of stoking ethnic tensions by claiming genocide against Igbos.

Former London estate agent and IPOB founder Nnamdi Kanu is on trial on
terrorism charges in the capital Abuja.

A previous bid to establish a separate Biafran state for the Igbo people led
to a bloody civil war with federal forces between 1967 and 1970.

More than one million people died in the conflict, many from starvation.

But secessionist sentiment remains, stoking tensions in sub-Saharan Africa's
most populous nation.

The report was published just days before the Biafra Day which the movement
commemorates every end of May with a strict remain indoors order.

It also comes as President Bola Tinubu marks two years in office this week
while the military battles a jihadist insurgency that has lasted for over 15
years in the country's northeast.

The northwest and central states have in recent months faced a resurgence of
deadly raids from heavily armed bandit militias.