Death and denial in Nigeria

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3

In Western countries people mostly take for granted that the police are there ‘to protect and to serve’. The BBC’s Caroline Duffield has found this might be quite different in Nigeria – at least in one city. A hospital in the south-eastern city of Enugu has experienced an overwhelming flow of dead bodies in recent months, so many that mass burials have taken place. There are suspicions that the police might be implicated, particularly the feared SARS unit – the Special Anti-Robbery Squad. This has been denied by the authorities.

• Read Caroline Duffield’s online story
• Amnesty International: Nigerian police “kill at will”
• Nigeria’s police say Amnesty brutality claims are unfair