44 people who died in a prison cell in Chad were civilians who succumbed to brutal detention measures and not jihadists poisoned as authorities had stated, the National Commission for Human Rights found.
The fate of the 44 people was a mystery after their bodies were found in a cell in N’djamena in April with a prosecutor saying that autopsies showed traces of poison in some of the prisoners.
However, an investigative report released on Friday by Chad’s independent National Commission for Human Rights ruled out poisoning.
The report found the 44 prisoners to have died due to “the conditions of detention” which included a dangerously overcrowded cell, scorching heat, thirst and hunger.
According to the report, “The jailers did not deign to give assistance to anyone in danger in these conditions despite cries of distress and prayers recited all night from 8 pm to 6 am.”
Chad officials had said the prisoners were among a group of 58 suspected Boko Haram militants captured during a major army operation around Lake Chad that was launched by President Idriss Deby Itno in early April.
The Chadian Convention for Human Rights (CTDDH) said last month that the group was in fact “farmers and villagers who arbitrarily arrested.” Their report confirmed the claim saying “the detainees were arrested long after the army operation, not during the fighting.”
According to relatives of the victims interviewed by the Commission, the detainees were “mostly the heads of families who had left in search of daily food”, or were visiting family members in other villages.
The Commission also interviewed the 14 survivors. Two said they were 16 years old, while the other 12 were the fathers of families living off the land in the villages surrounding Lake Chad.
Most said they were arrested for violating measures such as travel bans under the state of emergency imposed on the Lake Chad region ahead of the military operation.
The survivors said the only food anyone in the cell was given were a few dates — but many missed out.
Some of the detainees then started to have trouble and fall, some prayed while “others shouted and knocked to attract the attention of the jailers,” the survivors said.
Justice Minister Djimet Arabi told AFP he had taken note of the Commission’s report, adding that a judicial inquiry had been launched to find those responsible for the deaths.
In April, Arabi had suggested 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.
