(LAGOS, Nigeria) — Hundreds of people are dying in military detention from shootings, suffocation or starvation as Nigeria's security forces crack down on an Islamic uprising in the northeast, Amnesty International said Tuesday. More than 950 people died in military custody in the first six months of this year, according to "credible information" from a senior Nigerian army officer, the rights group said. The Associated Press reported in August that hundreds of people detained by security forces in northern Nigeria have disappeared. The new Amnesty International report may help explain what happened to all those people — a horrifying result for their loved ones who are still searching for the missing. Military and government officials did not immediately respond to phone calls and emails requesting their comments. If the number of deaths in military custody cited by the Amnesty International is accurate, that means Nigeria's military has killed more civilians than the extremists did during the first half of 2013. Amnesty International called for an urgent investigation. Detainees "were reportedly shot in the leg during interrogations, provided no medical care and left to bleed to death," the London-based human rights group said in the report, which includes testimony from freed detainees. The AP reported three months after President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in the northeastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe on May 14 that hundreds of people were being rounded up in night raids. The state of emergency gives a Joint Task Force of soldiers, police, intelligence and customs and immigration officials the right to detain people and move them from place to place, as well as the right to search without warrants. Distraught relatives, human rights organizations and journalists have asked the army, the police, intelligence services and government officials where the arrested people are, but have received no answers, the AP reported. Amnesty International says dozens of bodies are being delivered by soldiers to the mortuaries of the main hospitals in Maiduguri and Damaturu, capitals of Borno and Yobe states. Human rights activist Shehu(http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&blog=19871253&post=109539&subd=timeglobalspin&ref=&feed=1)
Source: Amnesty: Hundreds Killed in Detention in Nigeria (http://world.time.com/2013/10/15/amnesty-hundreds-killed-in-detention-in-nigeria/)