{"id":49507,"date":"2026-10-30T10:42:35","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T08:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&p=49507"},"modified":"2026-10-30T10:42:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T08:42:35","slug":"nigerian-families-survivors-seek-justice-over-miners-deaths","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/nigerian-families-survivors-seek-justice-over-miners-deaths\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigerian families, survivors seek justice over miners’ deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"
Families of \u200b37 artisanal miners who died in custody in Nigeria want swift justice and the \u200creturn of property seized during their arrest, saying no financial compensation will make up for their loss.<\/div>\n
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A presidential panel on Tuesday found that the detainees, who were suspected of being illegal miners, had died from overcrowding, extreme \u200bheat, dehydration and neglect while being held by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps \u200bin Niger state last month.<\/div>\n
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Nigeria’s government welcomed the panel’s findings, and Interior \u2060Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo said the panel’s report had been sent to the attorney-general for immediate judicial \u200baction. He did not respond to requests for comment on when victims’ families and survivors would receive \u200bcompensation.<\/div>\n
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The deaths, including of teenagers, triggered protests in Nigeria, raising new concerns about conditions in detention facilities and the treatment of suspects awaiting trial.<\/div>\n
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“What we wanted was for our children to be alive and return to us,” said \u200bZainab Salihu, whose son was among the dead.<\/div>\n
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She said the deaths in detention had led \u200bto the deterioration of the health of her husband, who later died. Reuters was unable to verify the circumstances \u200cof \u2060her husband’s death.<\/div>\n
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“No matter how much money they give us, it will never bring our children back,” Salihu said.<\/div>\n
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Dantala Tanko, whose 25-year-old son Suleiman died in detention, is struggling to come to terms with his loss.<\/div>\n
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“Now he is gone, and this is deeply painful for me. I know \u200bhe will never return,” \u200bhe said after praying \u2060at his son’s grave.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
–Reuters–<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":23486,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-49507","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"About 37 artisanal miners who died in custody in Nigeria","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49509,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49507\/revisions\/49509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=49507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}