Babies and children dying in Nigerian military detention, Amnesty International alleges

Posted by News Express | 11 May 2016 | 2,877 times

Amnesty International says babies and children are among scores of people dying in military detention at a notorious Nigerian barracks where soldiers illegally hold suspected Islamic extremists.

The London-based human rights group quotes witnesses, supported by video and photographic evidence, as saying many detainees at the Giwa Barracks may have died from disease, hunger, dehydration and gunshot wounds. The barracks is in the northeastern city of Maiduguri.

Amnesty is calling for Nigeria's government to shut the facility. President Muhammadu Buhari has not kept promises to address alleged gross human rights abuses by soldiers.

The report published Wednesday says 149 people, including 11 children under age 6, have died at Giwa this year. Among them were four babies who apparently died of untreated measles.

Amnesty says bodies are being buried in unmarked mass graves.

•Sourced from Fox News. Photo shows Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Gabriel Olonisakin.

Source: News Express