Eleven children under the age of six, including four babies, are among 149 people who have died this year following their detention in horrendous conditions in the notorious Giwa barracks detention centre in Maiduguri, Nigeria, Amnesty International reveals today.
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
Netsanet Belay, Amnesty International
Evidence gathered through interviews with former detainees and eyewitnesses, supported by video and photos, shows many detainees may have died from disease, hunger, dehydration, and gunshots wounds. The briefing, “If you see it, you will cry”: Life and death in Giwa barracks, also contains satellite imagery which corroborates witness testimonies.
“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.
“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.”
Amnesty International believes that around 1,200 people are currently detained at Giwa barracks in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. Many were arbitrarily rounded up during mass arrests, often with no evidence against them. Once inside the barracks, they are incarcerated without access to the outside world or trial. At least 120 of those detained are children.
Detention and deaths of children
At least 12 children have died in Giwa barracks since February. 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.
Three died while we were there. When the children died the reaction was too much sadness
Former detainee of Giwa barracks
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.”
The other witness, a 40-year-old woman detained in Giwa barracks for more than four months, told Amnesty International 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.”
After the deaths of these children she says that 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 t