ABUJA (Rooters) - Nigeria's military court-martialed 97 of its troops on Thursday for offenses including mutiny, assault, absconding, house breaking and disorderly behavior.The president of the court-martial, Brigadier General Musa Yusuf, did not explicitly state that the trials related to soldiers' conduct in a war against Islamist gunnies Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
, but the troops were all serving in Maiduguri in the northeast, epicenter of the conflict.
Low morale there has led to a series of desertions and at least one mutiny. A security source said some soldiers had refused to board a bus to a combat deployment. Nigeria's military authorities last month sentenced 12 soldiers to death by firing squad for mutiny in the northeastern region.
Troops have also been repeatedly accused by human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
groups of abuses including killing civilians and torching their homes, charges the leadership usually denies.