HRW flags abuse of mentally-ill Nigerians

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the Nigerian Government to ban the chaining of mentally ill people across the country. It notes that the ‘detention, chaining and violent treatment of mental health patients was pervasive in many settings, including state hospitals, rehabilitation centres, traditional healing centres, and both Christian and Islamic faith-based facilities’. ‘People with mental health conditions should be supported and provided with effective services in their communities,’ said Emina Cerimovic, a senior disability rights researcher at HRW. President Muhammadu Buhari last month said he would not ‘tolerate the existence of the torture chambers and physical abuses of inmates in the name of rehabilitation’. This followed raids on several facilities. The WHO says Nigeria has Africa's highest rate of depression, and ranks fifth in the world in suicide rates.