Survivors of a detention cell in Minna, the capital of Nigeria’s mineral-rich Niger state, have described scenes of panic and difficulty breathing after 37 suspected illegal goldminers were found dead while in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
The bodies were discovered on Thursday inside cells where the NSCDC had held dozens of people following raids on suspected illegal goldmines in and around the city. Local reports said many of the victims were children.
Protests erupted in Minna on Friday over the deaths. Police fired teargas at demonstrators and authorities imposed an overnight curfew as tensions ran high in the city. The unrest followed immediate shock and anger among residents and relatives of those detained.
The NSCDC is a paramilitary agency that carried out the raids and held the detainees. Survivors quoted in accounts of the incident said they had panicked and struggled to breathe while confined in the same cell where the fatalities later occurred.
Minna, the administrative centre of Niger state, is in a region known for artisanal and small-scale gold mining. The circumstances surrounding the deaths have provoked public outrage and raised questions about the treatment of detainees in the aftermath of security operations in mining areas.
Authorities have not yet publicly detailed a full account of how the deaths occurred or released findings from any investigation at the time of the reports; the incident is likely to prompt further inquiries and scrutiny of detention practices during raids on illegal mining operations.