37 Suspected Illegal Miners, Many of Them Teenagers, Die in Nigerian Paramilitary Custody

Thirty-seven suspected illegal gold miners died this week inside a holding cell run by Nigeria's Security and Civil Defence Corps in Minna, the capital of Niger state. Many of the dead were children, ages 14 to 18, according to state governor Umar Bago.

The detainees were rounded up between September 15 and 16 during raids on illegal mining sites around the M.I. Wushishi/Lukoto axis, according to The ICIR. Bodies were discovered Thursday, September 17. By Friday, September 18, survivors were describing what happened inside the cell to journalists and to the governor himself.

The Official Story Didn't Hold Up

NSCDC initially blamed the deaths on a disease outbreak. An intelligence report reviewed by Agence France-Presse said preliminary findings pointed to overcrowding and inadequate ventilation, not illness.

Survivor Dauda Shehu told journalists at a Minna hospital what that looked like from inside the cell. "We were jam-packed in the cell, no ventilation for us to breathe well," he said, according to AFP. "All of a sudden we realised that we could not breathe and we were all scampering for where to get fresh air, we even appealed to them several times, banged the cell door but they refused to answer us."

Another survivor, who did not give his name, told AFP he made it out because he was near the cell's entrance where air still reached him. He said detainees screamed for help and told guards "people are dying one after the other," but the guards didn't believe them.

A separate account, reported by The ICIR, adds an allegation the other outlets don't carry: a survivor told Governor Bago that officers sprayed an unidentified substance into the cell right after locking the door. "As they locked the door, they sprayed something like a perfume; the smell of the substance immediately circulated, and just like that, some people started falling," the survivor said, according to The ICIR, speaking in Hausa with the governor translating for Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo. The same survivor said 48 additional detainees were crammed into an already packed 14-person room, and that pleas for water were ignored through the night.

That allegation is unproven and has not been confirmed by NSCDC, AFP's intelligence report, or any forensic finding made public so far. The federal government has not announced an official cause of death. The disease story NSCDC gave first does not match survivor testimony or the intelligence assessment AFP reviewed.

Protests, Teargas, and a Curfew

Anger over the deaths spilled into Minna's streets Thursday night and continued Friday. Reuters witnesses saw security forces fire live rounds as crowds, some carrying sticks, machetes and hunting rifles, demanded justice. Protesters attacked a transport depot, a bank, political party offices and private businesses, and tried to set fire to government buildings in the Tunga neighborhood, according to AFP.

"We are not thieves, we are simply seeking a way to make a living by mining," miner Yusuf Auwal told Reuters.

Governor Bago imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew to contain the unrest.

Mallam Abdullahi, who lost his son Salim in the cell, told AFP that Salim was the family's breadwinner and had left home three days earlier to mine. "They should tell us what truly killed our children," he said. "We need justice."

Government Response

President Bola Tinubu ordered what he called a "thorough," "urgent" and "full and transparent investigation" into the deaths, according to AFP. Tinubu said in a statement carried by AFP: "The fact that these individuals were suspected of illegal mining does not remove their right to life, dignity and humane treatment. We will not tolerate deaths arising from official negligence, abuse, dereliction of duty or the failure of public officials to protect lives placed under their care."

The interior ministry suspended the state NSCDC commandant, Suberu Siyaka Aniviye, pending the investigation, Interior Minister Tunji-Ojo confirmed. Both the Nigeria Police Force and NSCDC headquarters in Abuja have opened separate probes, according to The ICIR.

Niger state, a territory more than twice the size of Belgium, draws thousands of artisanal miners chasing gold. Officials and experts cited by AFP say criminal gangs already tax and extort miners for access to pits, layering violence on top of a labor system that pulls children out of school and into mine shafts in the first place.

The actual cause of death remains unresolved. Nigeria's federal government has not issued a final ruling, and the substance-spraying allegation has not been independently verified.