11 children, babies among dead as overcrowding, hunger, disease, dehydration take toll
Daud Olatunji
At least 149 people, including children and babies, died in military detention at Giwa Barracks in Maiduguri, Borno State, between January and May 2016, according to findings by Amnesty International.
The rights organisation said the deaths occurred amid what it described as severely overcrowded and insanitary conditions at the military detention facility, where detainees were allegedly subjected to inadequate food, water and medical care.
Amnesty International’s findings, contained in its report “Nigeria: ‘If you see it, you will cry’ — Life and death in Giwa Barracks,” documented at least 149 deaths during the period. The organisation said at least 12 children and babies were among those who died.
The report said witnesses identified starvation, dehydration and disease, linked to overcrowding, as likely contributors to the deaths, although Amnesty noted that it could not independently establish the precise cause of every death.
The organisation also reported that 65 detainees died in March 2016 alone, making the month one of the deadliest periods documented at the facility.
According to Amnesty, the deaths included children who were being held alongside their mothers, as well as babies born while their mothers were in detention.
The organisation said children under five were held in extremely overcrowded women’s cells, with witnesses reporting that the section contained at least 250 women and teenage girls, alongside many young children.
Amnesty further documented the detention of more than 120 boys, aged between five and 16, in a separate cell at Giwa Barracks.
The boys, according to the organisation, were held incommunicado and were not permitted to leave their cell except occasionally when soldiers called them out for counting.
Amnesty said conditions inside the facility were particularly harsh, with detainees reportedly packed into cells so tightly that they could not properly lie down.
The organisation also said detainees had insufficient access to food and drinking water, while sanitation facilities were grossly inadequate.
According to the report, detainees had only communal buckets for faeces and urine, while the cells were reportedly cleaned infrequently and detainees were rarely allowed to wash.
The combination of overcrowding, poor sanitation, inadequate food and water and limited medical attention created conditions in which illnesses spread rapidly, Amnesty said.
The rights group said witnesses reported that some children may have died from measles or other communicable diseases.
It also noted that no autopsies had been conducted on the bodies and that, at the time of its investigation, there had been no adequate investigation into the deaths in custody.
Amnesty’s findings formed part of its wider documentation of deaths in military detention during Nigeria’s fight against Boko Haram insurgency.
The organisation had previously reported that thousands of people died in military detention in the North-East, attributing the deaths to conditions including starvation, extreme overcrowding and denial of medical assistance.
In a subsequent 2016 submission to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Amnesty said the number of deaths recorded at Giwa had risen to 168, following 19 additional deaths after its May 2016 report.
Amnesty later reported that at least 580 people had died at Giwa Barracks since 2016, including 29 children and babies, according to figures cited in its 2018 submission.
The organisation has consistently called for investigations into deaths in military custody and for detainees, particularly children, to be held only in humane conditions and with appropriate legal safeguards.
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