The popular hashtag #EndSARS began in 2017 by a group of Nigerian grassroots activists that were fighting to abolish the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). SARS is a Nigerian Federal police unit that has a history of abusing its power through sexual assault, bribes, beatings, waterboarding, mock executions, hangings, and more.
It was founded in 1992 as a collective Federal attempt to confront serious crimes and robberies. Their human rights abuses and corruption has sparked a world wide anti-police brutality movement. The reported human rights violations include intruding on the right to life, freedom from torture, right to liberty, and right to privacy and family life. SARS officers have the ability to carry guns, but they don’t wear badges or uniforms. Amnesty International reported 82+ torture, ill-treatment, extrajudicial execution cases between Jan 2017-May 2020. Most victims come from low-income or vulnerable backgrounds and are 18-25 year-old men. The list of SARS abuses can be viewed below.
Currently, after failed attempts at promised police reform, Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari declared that SARS was “dissolved with immediate effect” on October 11 2020. Protesters responded by demanding SARS officers to be held accountable for their actions. The 5 demands from the #EndSARS movement includes: releasing all protesters from jail, justice and compensation for all victims of police brutality, creating an independent system to investigate all reports of police misconduct, a psychological evaluation of all disbanded SARS officers before reemployment, and increasing the salary of police officers.