Nigeria orders probe after 37 die in custody

Intelligence report suggests the victims died of poor ventilation in detention facility

MINNA, NIGERIA:

Survivors of a Nigerian disaster that saw 37 suspected illegal gold miners die while in the custody of a paramilitary civil defence group recounted their panic on Friday as they struggled to breathe inside the cell.

Police fired shots to disperse protests as tensions spilled onto the streets of Minna, the capital of mineral-rich Niger state in central Nigeria. It was not immediately clear whether police were firing anti-riot pellets or live ammunition.

The Nigeria's government has imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in Minna to curtail the unrest that saw the mobs blocking a main street and attacking a transport depot, a bank, political party offices and private businesses. The government suspended a civil defence commander.

President Bola Tinubu has ordered a "thorough", "urgent and "full and transparent investigation" over Thursday's deaths. But anger erupted among sympathisers as testimony from survivors suggested the miners may have suffocated in packed cells.

A 40-second video shared online purporting to show the victims of Thursday's incident featured bodies of dozens of young men clad only in shorts. Most of them appeared to be teenagers and were sprawled on the ground out in the open.

An intelligence report seen by AFP suggested the 37 died as a result of overcrowding and poor ventilation in the detention facility, though the civil defence initially blamed the deaths on disease.

Meanwhile, officials in southwestern ?Ondo state said on Friday that the death toll from suspected alcohol poisoning rose to 49.