Since the start of 2014, more than 1,500 people have been killed in north-eastern Nigeria. People are living in a climate of fear and insecurity, vulnerable to attack from Islamist armed group Boko Haram on the one hand and facing human rights violations at the hands of the very state security forces which should be protecting them. In light of this context, the ongoing intensity of the confrontation and the organisation of the clashing actors, Amnesty International considers the situation to be a non-international armed conflict.