Nigeria, Battling Boko Haram, Detains Some of Its Victims

 

 

 

 In northeastern Nigeria, soldiers are fighting a brutal battle with Boko Haram, the Islamist extremist group that has terrorized the region for years with its campaign of murder, kidnapping, rape and thievery.

But in its aggressive hunt for Boko Haram fighters, the Nigerian military has ensnared and detained scores of civilians, including toddlers and infants, for weeks or months. And sometimes, activists say, innocent people are never heard from again.

Nearly 150 people have died this year in just one of the detention centers, Giwa barracks, where Ms. Ali was held with her family, according to Amnesty International.

Eleven of the dead were children younger than 6, including four babies, it said. The prison this spring held 1,200 people, at least 120 of them children, Amnesty found.

“Many were arbitrarily rounded up during mass arrests,” the group said, “often with no evidence against them.”

Nigeria, which denies the claims, is not the only country in the region criticized as going too far in the fight against Boko Haram. Cameroon has been accused of detaining 1,000 people suspected of supporting Boko Haram, many arrested arbitrarily, in horrific conditions that have caused some to die from disease and malnutrition.

The Nigerian military says it detains people it suspects of being Boko Haram sympathizers — including people who have been kidnapped — to weed out anyone who might be dangerous.