37 suspected illegal miners die in Nigerian custody amid overcrowding claims

Thirty-seven men arrested for suspected illegal mining in Nigeria's Niger state were dead within two days of entering a detention facility — a loss that raises ancient questions about the duty of the state toward those it holds in its power. Authorities reached for the language of disease to explain the deaths, but the families of the dead and intelligence reports speak of something more immediate: a cell without enough air for the bodies packed inside it. The law that was meant to protect these men — requiring swift appearance before a court — appears to have gone unobserved, and the gap betw