In Minna, Nigeria, thirty-three men arrested for artisanal mining died inside a cell no larger than a modest bedroom, sealed against the heat with no water and no mercy. Their deaths — and the four that followed in hospital — speak to something older and more persistent than any single act of negligence: the human capacity to render other human beings invisible behind a locked door. A federal investigation has now begun, carrying with it the weight of survivors who drank their own urine to stay alive, and a governor who reminded the nation that the dead were not insects.
33 prisoners die in Nigerian detention cell amid extreme heat and alleged neglect
Thirty-three detainees died in the cell and four more died later in hospital due to extreme heat, dehydration, and alleged guard neglect during detention.