Amnesty International has released a damning report that shows how the Nigerian Army has been responsible for the deaths of about a 149 people including 11 children under 6.
The report titled: ‘If you see it, you will cry: Life and death in Giwa barracks’, reports the horrendous conditions in which they were kept and has interviews with former detainees and eyewitnesses, supported by video and photos as evidence of what’s going on at Giwa barracks. It also has reports on how many detainees may have died from disease, hunger, dehydration, and gunshots wounds.
“The discovery that babies and young children have died in appalling conditions in military detention is both harrowing and horrifying. We have repeatedly sounded the alarm over the high death rate of detainees in Giwa barracks but these findings show that, for both adults and children, it remains a place of death,” said Netsanet Belay, Amnesty International’s research and advocacy director for Africa according to thecableng.
“There can be no excuses and no delay. The detention facilities in Giwa barracks must be immediately closed and all detainees released or transferred to civilian authorities. The government must urgently introduce systems to ensure the safety and well-being of children released from detention.”
Thecableng reports that Amnesty International believes there are over a thousand people at these detention facilities in Giwa barracks all living in unsanitary conditions that endangers their lives.
Unfortunately Children are not left out of the suffering as the agency reported that at least 12 children have died in Giwa barracks since February.
The children were held in 3 overcrowded womens’ cells and due to the rising number of detainees, conditions became more and more unsanitary.
Amnesty International understands that there were around 20 babies and children under five in each of the three cells.
According to the cableng One witness told Amnesty International that they saw the bodies of eight dead children including a five-month-old, two one-year-olds, a two-year-old, a three-year-old, a four-year-old and two five-year-olds.
Two former detainees reported that two boys and a girl, aged between one and two years old, died in February 2016.
One of the detainees, a 20-year-old woman, who had been held in a women’s cell for more than two months in 2016 told Amnesty International: “Three died while we were there. When the children died, the reaction was too much sadness.”
Another 40-year-old witness alleged that soldiers ignored pleas for medical attention: “Measles started when hot season started. In the morning, two or three [were ill], by the evening five babies [were ill]. You will see the fever, the [baby’s] body is very hot and they will cry day and night. The eyes were red and the skin will have some rashes. Later some medical personnel came and confirmed that this is measles.”
The deaths must have jarred the soldiers because according to the witness after the deaths of these children more regular medical checks began. She told Amnesty International: “Every two days the medical personnel will come to the yard and say ‘bring out the children who are sick’. The doctor will see them at the door and give them medicine through the door.”
Boys over five, arrested alone or with their parents, were held in a single cell. As with all detainees at the barracks, they were denied access to their families and held incommunicado.
Reports indicate that the boys are held without access to family visits.
On the conditions of detention Amnesty International were told “It is hunger and thirst and the heat – these are the main problems.” The other boy detained in the same cell confirmed: “The food was not enough. There was very little food.”
Around 136 men have died in custody in Giwa in 2016, comprising 28 men who appeared to have succumbed to gunshot wounds.
A former detainee told Amnesty International: “In the morning they open the cell and take the urine and stool [buckets] outside. Next the coffin [corpses] will be taken outside.”
The detainees were buried in mass grades and transported in rubbish trucks.
A witness stated that conditions are even graver in the mens’ cells
“There is a small plastic bowl for food. People use it for small children. It is just that for each meal,” he said.
“No-one has a shirt so you can count the ribs of their body. There is no cleaning, so you live in disease. It is like a toilet. Me and my brother were sick inside the cell. Diarrhea was common,” said another.
You can see pictures of some of the victims below.
