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End SARS
End SARS, widely written as EndSARS, was a decentralised social movement and series of mass protests against police brutality in Nigeria that mainly occurred in October of 2001. The movement's slogan called for the disbandment of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a notorious unit of the Nigerian Police known for its long record of abuse against Nigerian citizens. The protests originated from a Twitter campaign in 2017, using the hashtag #EndSARS to demand the unit's disbandment by the Nigerian government. The movement experienced a resurgence in October 2020 following further revelations of the unit's abuses, leading to mass demonstrations across major cities in Nigeria, and widespread outrage on social media platforms. The hashtag #EndSARS accumulated over 28 million tweets on Twitter alone. Solidarity protests and demonstrations by Nigerians in the diaspora and sympathizers occurred in many major cities around the world. Notably, the movement was predominantly led by young Nigerians and expanded to include demands for good governance and accountability, amidst unprecedented hardship in the country.
Within a few days of protests, on 11 October 2020, the Nigerian Police Force announced the dissolution of the unit with immediate effect. The move was widely perceived as a triumph for the demonstrators. However, it was noted in many quarters that similar announcements had been made in recent years to placate the public without the unit actually being disbanded, and that the government had merely planned to reassign and review SARS officers to medical centres rather than disband the unit entirely. Protests continued accordingly, and the Nigerian government maintained a pattern of violent repression, including the killing of demonstrators. International demonstrations in solidarity with those in the country occurred, and the movement also grew increasingly critical of Muhammadu Buhari's government response to the protests.
SARS officers were alleged to profile young Nigerians, mostly males, based on fashion choices, tattoos and hairstyles. They were also known to set up illegal road blocks, conduct unwarranted checks and searches, make arrests and detain without warrant or trial, rape women, and extort young male Nigerians for driving exotic vehicles and using laptops and iPhones. Nigerians shared stories and video evidence of how SARS officers engaged in kidnapping, murder, theft, rape, torture, unlawful arrests, humiliation, unlawful detention, extrajudicial killings and extortion of Nigerian citizens. A large number of the victims of the abuses of SARS were young male Nigerians.
The End SARS protest movement was ultimately suppressed by the Nigerian military, leading to the death of several non-violent protesters at Lekki tollgate, Lagos.
The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) was a unit of the Nigeria Police Force under the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID). It was founded in late 1992 as one of the 14 units in the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, which was established to detain, investigate, and prosecute people involved in crimes like armed robbery, kidnapping, and other violent crimes. The squad was created as a masked police unit to perform undercover operations against violent crimes like armed robbery, car snatching, kidnapping, cattle rustling, and the bearing and use of illegal firearms.
SARS had been accused of several human rights violations, illegal "stop and searches", illegal arrests and detentions, extrajudicial killings, sexual harassment of women and brutalising of young male Nigerians. The human rights abuses were documented in trending videos on social media.
In 2017, Nigerian activists, youth and celebrities across the nation took to the streets in a peaceful protest to spread awareness of SARS brutality and extortions and to demand its disbanding. The protests also moved to social media using the hashtag #EndSARS.
A 2016 report by Amnesty International, indicted SARS maintaining that the squad was responsible for human rights abuses, cruelty, degrading treatment of Nigerians in their custody, and other widespread torture. Some of the human rights abuses by SARS include the shooting of their detainees in the leg, mock executions and threats of execution, hanging and physical assault. A 2020 publication by the organisation documented 82 cases of abuses and extra judicial killings by SARS between January 2017 and May 2020.
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End SARS
End SARS, widely written as EndSARS, was a decentralised social movement and series of mass protests against police brutality in Nigeria that mainly occurred in October of 2001. The movement's slogan called for the disbandment of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a notorious unit of the Nigerian Police known for its long record of abuse against Nigerian citizens. The protests originated from a Twitter campaign in 2017, using the hashtag #EndSARS to demand the unit's disbandment by the Nigerian government. The movement experienced a resurgence in October 2020 following further revelations of the unit's abuses, leading to mass demonstrations across major cities in Nigeria, and widespread outrage on social media platforms. The hashtag #EndSARS accumulated over 28 million tweets on Twitter alone. Solidarity protests and demonstrations by Nigerians in the diaspora and sympathizers occurred in many major cities around the world. Notably, the movement was predominantly led by young Nigerians and expanded to include demands for good governance and accountability, amidst unprecedented hardship in the country.
Within a few days of protests, on 11 October 2020, the Nigerian Police Force announced the dissolution of the unit with immediate effect. The move was widely perceived as a triumph for the demonstrators. However, it was noted in many quarters that similar announcements had been made in recent years to placate the public without the unit actually being disbanded, and that the government had merely planned to reassign and review SARS officers to medical centres rather than disband the unit entirely. Protests continued accordingly, and the Nigerian government maintained a pattern of violent repression, including the killing of demonstrators. International demonstrations in solidarity with those in the country occurred, and the movement also grew increasingly critical of Muhammadu Buhari's government response to the protests.
SARS officers were alleged to profile young Nigerians, mostly males, based on fashion choices, tattoos and hairstyles. They were also known to set up illegal road blocks, conduct unwarranted checks and searches, make arrests and detain without warrant or trial, rape women, and extort young male Nigerians for driving exotic vehicles and using laptops and iPhones. Nigerians shared stories and video evidence of how SARS officers engaged in kidnapping, murder, theft, rape, torture, unlawful arrests, humiliation, unlawful detention, extrajudicial killings and extortion of Nigerian citizens. A large number of the victims of the abuses of SARS were young male Nigerians.
The End SARS protest movement was ultimately suppressed by the Nigerian military, leading to the death of several non-violent protesters at Lekki tollgate, Lagos.
The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) was a unit of the Nigeria Police Force under the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID). It was founded in late 1992 as one of the 14 units in the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, which was established to detain, investigate, and prosecute people involved in crimes like armed robbery, kidnapping, and other violent crimes. The squad was created as a masked police unit to perform undercover operations against violent crimes like armed robbery, car snatching, kidnapping, cattle rustling, and the bearing and use of illegal firearms.
SARS had been accused of several human rights violations, illegal "stop and searches", illegal arrests and detentions, extrajudicial killings, sexual harassment of women and brutalising of young male Nigerians. The human rights abuses were documented in trending videos on social media.
In 2017, Nigerian activists, youth and celebrities across the nation took to the streets in a peaceful protest to spread awareness of SARS brutality and extortions and to demand its disbanding. The protests also moved to social media using the hashtag #EndSARS.
A 2016 report by Amnesty International, indicted SARS maintaining that the squad was responsible for human rights abuses, cruelty, degrading treatment of Nigerians in their custody, and other widespread torture. Some of the human rights abuses by SARS include the shooting of their detainees in the leg, mock executions and threats of execution, hanging and physical assault. A 2020 publication by the organisation documented 82 cases of abuses and extra judicial killings by SARS between January 2017 and May 2020.
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