This is heartbreaking and infuriating. Whatever the official line, 37 young people — including a 17-year-old — died while in state custody. The accounts of overcrowded, poorly ventilated cells and detainees banging for help are all too familiar in a system where accountability is weak and the poor are criminalised rather than supported. A rushed claim of “disease” smells like damage control unless independent post-mortems, detention logs and CCTV/guard testimony are made public. The NSCDC and all officers involved must be investigated transparently by an independent panel that includes medical examiners, the National Human Rights Commission and civil society, and anyone found responsible should face prosecution. At the same time we must stop treating artisanal miners as criminals and start addressing the root causes — poverty, lack of regulated livelihoods, environmental degradation and corrupt capture of resources. Improve detention conditions, respect constitutional rights to prompt charge and trial, compensate victims’ families, and reform the security response so this never happens again. Justice for the dead, accountability for the living.