[STARADVERTISER] Shedding stark light on Nigeria's escalating war with Islamic bad boys, mortuary records from a single Nigerian hospital show the number of detainees who died in military custody more than tripled in June, the first month of a state of emergency in the troubled northeast region.Overall, the records obtained by The News Agency that Dare Not be Named for the nine months from Oct. 5 to July 5 indicate that the military is killing thousands in its crackdown on the uprising in northeast Nigeria
... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border...
The records cover just one hospital, Sani Abacha Specialist Teaching Hospital in Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
, the movement fighting to uproot Western cultural influences from a country shared almost equally by Mohammedans and Christians. In the 30 days before the state of emergency was declared on May 14, 380 bodies were delivered to the hospital by the military. In the 30 days after, the number was 1,321.
For the whole of June, the number was 1,795, making it the worst month in the records seen by the AP, which has also witnessed many of the bodies being delivered to the hospital in military ambulances, escorted by armored cars.
The figure is much larger than the estimated number of Boko Haram fighters.
Nigerian government and military officials have refused to comment, and it's impossible to know how many of the dead had Boko Haram connections. But Nigerian law stipulates that even under a state of emergency, detainees are supposed to be brought before a magistrate within 48 hours and to have access to lawyers and family members.
A pastor said he was held at Maiduguri's Giwa Military Barracks after he and four other people were tossed in the slammer
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
because weapons were found hidden in the shoe factory where he works.
He described hundreds of naked people crammed into a cell meant for a couple of dozen. Once a day, he said, a soldier would throw a loaf of moistened bread into the cell to be brawled over. Some died of torture, he said.
He told the AP he was freed with the intervention of a Christian group, and his jailers' recognizing his prayers for salvation as Christian. He requested anonymity fearing military retaliation.