Nigeria: 37 dead detainees had difficulty breathing and called for help according to survivors

“We were screaming that people were dying”, but the guards “did not believe us”: survivors recounted on Friday the conditions in which 37 suspected illegal gold miners died, crowded into custody by paramilitaries in Minna, in central Nigeria.

Minna, the capital of Niger State, was under tension on Friday following this tragedy and the testimonies of survivors. Police opened fire on demonstrators, according to witnesses. An angry crowd blocked a major artery, attacked a bus station, a bank, political party offices and private businesses.

It was not immediately known whether the police fired rubber bullets or live ammunition. The government imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew to contain the unrest. A civil defense commander was suspended.

President Bola Tinubu has ordered a “thorough”, “urgent”, “complete and transparent” investigation into Thursday’s death.

Niger State, more than twice the size of Belgium, is rich in minerals and home to thousands of artisanal miners, most of whom are lured by the hope of finding gold.

Testimonies from survivors suggesting that the minors could have suffocated in overcrowded cells fueled popular anger on Friday.

“We were crowded in the cell, without ventilation to allow us to breathe well,” Dauda Shehu, one of the survivors, told journalists in a city hospital the day after the tragedy.

“Suddenly we realized we couldn’t breathe and we all rushed to find fresh air. We even called them several times, we knocked on the cell door, but they refused to answer us,” continued this survivor.

“On several occasions we alerted that some people were already dying of suffocation, no one responded to us,” he added.

– “We were screaming” –

Another survivor, who asked to remain anonymous, said he escaped alive because he was near the cell entrance, where he could breathe better. “We were screaming that people were dying,” but the guards “didn’t believe us.”

Mallam Abdullahi, who lost a son, Salim, whom he presented as the main breadwinner, explained that the latter had left home three days earlier to go to the mine and had not returned. “They must tell us the reasons for the death of our children. We want justice,” the father told reporters.

The NGO Amnesty International called for a “thorough, independent, impartial, transparent and effective investigation” into this tragedy.

“The fact that these people are suspected of illegal mining does not deprive them of their right to life, dignity and humane treatment,” underlined the Head of State.

“We do not tolerate deaths resulting from official negligence, abuse, dereliction of duty or the failure of public officials to protect lives in their care,” he insisted.

An intelligence report consulted by AFP believes that the deaths were due to “overcrowding and insufficient ventilation within a detention center”, although the paramilitaries who apprehended these people initially attributed the deaths to illness.

The victims were held at the premises of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), a paramilitary group that works with the police to provide security and protect sensitive national assets and infrastructure.

In this region, most of the illegally mined gold is transferred to the United Arab Emirates, and introduced into the global gold market in Europe, the United States, Asia and South Africa, according to a 2024 report by the NGO SwissAid.

The state’s soil is also rich in copper and lithium, a resource that is in high demand for the development of batteries and electric vehicles.

AFP