Amnesty International said on Friday that Nigeria's army last month killed at least 17 unarmed members of a group calling for secession from Africa's most populous nation, but the military dismissed the allegations as unfounded.
An army spokesman said Amnesty's accusations, the latest in a series of allegations of impropriety leveled against Nigeria's military in the last year, revealed a bias that undermined its credibility.
Amnesty's report -- which it said was based on details from eyewitnesses, morgues and hospitals -- says soldiers opened fire on members of the Indigenous people of Biafra (IPOB) and their supporters in the southeastern city of Onitsha during the build up to a march in late May.
The human rights group said the killings took place during a security operation in the early hours of the morning shortly before the march when the military raided homes and a church where IPOB members slept.
