THE #ENDSARS MOVEMENT EXPLAINED

Nigerians across the world are uniting in their stance against police brutality conducted at the hands of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

There have been allegations of torture, violations of human rights and abuse against young Nigerians. These allegations include unlawful arrests and detainment disproportionately against young people, kidnapping, murder, extortion and theft.

The protests started following the alleged killing of a young man by officers from the Sars unit at the beginning of October.

Protesters called for the unit to be disbanded.

Videos shared to social media showed hostile treatment at the hands of the police as they threatened protesters and destroyed their property.

In a minor win, the Nigerian police chief announced that SARS would be banned from conducting " routine patrols and other conventional low-risk. duties -- stop and search duties, checkpoints, mounting of roadblocks, traffic checks, etc -- with immediate effect". Mohammed Adamu added, “Voices and complaints on the issues of unprofessional conducts by some SARS operatives have been heard very loudly and clearly."

He added, however, that all SARS officers would be redeployed to other police commands, formations and units, drawing condemnation by some activists online who pledged to keep up their campaign demanding accountability and justice for the victims of police brutality.

Adamu added the Nigerian police force would work with human rights groups and civil society organisations to investigate cases of alleged human rights violations.

But protesters rejected the announcement, as many see the changes as not enough to reform the police. Activists and protests say this is not enough though and want SARS scrapped altogether.

The protests have attracted worldwide attention - most recently the CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, urged his followers to donate Bitcoin to the organisers.

Those working in Nigeria's tech sector have been prominent among those complaining about the activities of Sars officers.

Nigeria superstars Wizkid and Davido have also backed the protesters.

What has the government done?

It has promised to meet several of the protesters' demands.

As well as banning Sars, President Muhammadu Buhari has promised an "extensive" reform of Nigeria's police service.

The authorities have also vowed to free all those protesters who have been detained.

They say that all Sars officers will undergo a psychological and medical examination before further training and redeployment, and that Sars officers will not be redeployed to the unit set up to replace it, the Special Weapons and Tactics (Swat) team.

However, the protesters remain sceptical, pointing out that several previous pledges to abolish or reform Sars were not fulfilled.