Nigeria court convicts 125 Boko Haram Islamist militants in mass trial

A court in Nigeria has convicted 125 Boko Haram Islamist militants and financiers of a series of terrorism-related offences.

The Attorney General’s office says the charges against them were “bordering on terrorism, terrorism financing, rendering material support, and International Criminal Court-related crimes”.

The mass two-day trial was presided over by five Federal High Court judges at a military detention facility at Kanji in Niger State.

Thousands of people have been killed and millions of others displaced in the Boko Haram insurgency since it began in 2009.

It has created a humanitarian crisis in the northeast of the country and put pressure on the Nigerian government to bring an end to the conflict.

Eight-five of the people were convicted for terrorism financing, 22 for ICC-related crimes, and the remaining defendants for terrorism offences.

They were sentenced to various jail terms.

The last mass trials of Boko Haram suspects took place between 2017 and 2018, where 163 people were convicted and 887 set free.

In 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped more than 270 girls from a school in the northeastern town of Chibok.

The abductions shocked the world and sparked a global campaign to #BringBackOurGirls, which included former United States First Lady, Michelle Obama.

More than 180 of the girls have since been freed or escaped but the rest are still missing.

Those that have returned home, some of whom gave birth while in captivity, face numerous difficulties in their communities.