The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said on Thursday that police from the Oromiya region are holding a large number of detainees, including babies and children, without charge, in “unhygienic and overcrowded” police stations across the region.
The state-appointed commission said children aged between 5 months and 10 years were being held along with their mothers, and that children as young as 9 were suspected of offenses and held with adult prisoners.
Detainees in the region, which is in central Ethiopia and like other regions has some autonomy from the central government in running matters such as law enforcement and education, are held in “dire conditions” with no access to water, medical care or sanitation and with limited food, the report said.