Amnesty International says children, women dying in Maiduguri military detention camp

Army denies claim

The authorities of the Nigerian Army have denied reports linked to an investigation purportedly carried out by Amnesty International at a military detention centre in Maiduguri, which claimed that people, including women and children, are dying due to poor medical attention and other dehumanizing conditions.

A press release by the human rights group, published on its website decried the condition of the detention camp for suspects accused of being Boko Haram members at the Giwa Barracks in Maiduguri, leading to the death of about 149 people including 11 children under six years. And called on President Muhammadu Buhari to investigate these findings and intervene.

The report reads in part: “Children under five years old, including babies, have been held in three overcrowded women’s cells. In the last year there has been a ten-fold increase in the number of detainees in these cells rising from 25 in 2015 to 250 in early 2016. Unsanitary conditions mean that disease is rife.

“Amnesty International understands that there were around 20 babies and children under five in each of the three cells.”

The report went on to give different accounts of witnesses, who allegedly were detainees themselves, narrating how different people died in the overcrowded cells “hunger and thirst and the heat – these are the main problems.”