Boko Haram members dead in prison in Chad: the official version does not convince

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The 44 prisoners of the Boko Haram group, found lifeless in their cell, are presented as part of a group of 58 men captured by the Chadian army in the province of Lake Chad earlier this month, and handed over to the judicial authorities in middle of the week. According to the authorities, they committed suicide in their cell. A medical examiner concluded that they swallowed a toxic substance after the autopsy of 4 of the 44 bodies. The prosecution has opened an investigation.

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It is not clear that all the 44 prisoners were Boko Haram defendants, because there has not yet been an investigation confirming that these people are really from Boko Haram. They died in a gendarmerie camp which is reputed to practice methods which violate human rights. We had alerted the authorities on several occasions to the brutality practiced on the prisoners. Similarly, we are not sure that (they died) following a substance that (they) allegedly ingested. But the mistreatment even - the heat -, it must be said that they had been locked up for two days, without drinking or eating. And there, the weakest succumbed. The hypothesis that they ingested a harmful product is also not confirmed by our investigators. So we have serious doubts about the government version, because that does not convince us.

Mahamat Nour Ibedou, Secretary General of the CTDDH, the Chadian Convention for the Defense of Human Rights

Magali Lagrange

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• Chad
• Boko Haram

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