A community of resistance youth, Juwon Sanyaolu, who for a year has worked closely with XR Youth Solidarity, has been illegally arrested and is now being tortured by the Nigerian police force for organizing a peaceful protest against police brutality. He has been denied access to medics and there are fears that he and the other leaders might be murdered in custody. We urgently need pressure to prevent this!
The media pack above is a call to action in response to a request from our youth allies in Nigeria for amplification and international pressure.
WHY IS THIS RELEVANT TO XR AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT?
- The struggle against police brutality in Nigeria is fundamental for the environmental movement.
- Repressive governments ignore local communities and ravage their ecosystems for their personal gains. When people resist the destruction of their lands, brutal repression by police crushes their voice and murders their leaders, enabling ecocide.
- Extinction Rebellion is a non-violent civil disobedience movement and as such understands the democratic importance that the right to protest has: we believe firmly in democracy and condemn violent repression by any government. We must stand in disobedience alongside Nigerian resistance.
- Over the summer, XR claimed that #BlackLivesMatter. It is time to show up for the Black resistance in Afrika that are being tortured as you are reading this. It is time for XR to speak up.
The urgency of this situation cannot be overemphasized, please please share and take up the call to action.
Social justice is essential to the climate movement!