Chad prison deaths were civilians not d
poisoned Jihadists
The Chad National Commission for Human Rights has discovered that 44 people who died in a Chad prison were civilians who succumbed to brutal detention conditions and not Jihadists poisoned as the authorities suggested.
By Karen Mhlanga
Mystery had originally surrounded the fate of 44 people whise bodies were found in N’Djamena cell in April, with a prosecutor saying that autopsies revealed traces of poison in some of the prisoners.
However, the report released on Friday by the National Commission for Human Rights ruled out poisoning.
The 44 prisoners were found out to have died of the bad “conditions of detention” which included dangerously overcrowded cell, scorching heat, thirst and hunger.
“The jailers did not try to give assistance to anyone in danger in these conditions despite cries of distress and prayers recited all night from 8pm to 6am,” the report said.
According to the relatives of the victims who were interviewed by the commission, the detainees were “mostly the heads of families who had left in search for daily food”, or were visiting family members in other villages.
The survivors said most of them were arrested for violating the travel ban imposed on the Lake Chad region ahead of the military operation.
Justice Minister Djimet Arabi told AFP suggesting the deaths could have been “collective suicide” after the prosecutor’s office said that autopsies had detected a lethal substance in some of the bodies.
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