Police in Nigeria have rescued 300 people they say were locked in a rice-processing factory and forced to work throughout a coronavirus lockdown. From the end of March the men were allegedly not allowed to leave the mill in the northern city of Kano.
The workers were promised an additional $13 (£10) a month on top of their $72 monthly salary - those who did not accept were threatened with the sack. Some of the men say were forced to work most of the time during their incarceration, with little food.
"We were allowed to rest for only a short time, no prayers were allowed, no family visits," 28-year-old Hamza Ibrahim, one of those rescued, told the BBC's Mansur Abubakar in Kano.
"What I saw was heart breaking. Where the company kept these people to live isn't fit for animals," Karibu Yahaya Kabara of the Global Human Rights Network told the BBC. "Their meals weren't enough and there were no drugs for those that took ill," he said.Mr Kabara said his organisation was taking up the case to ensure that the men got justice.
Five managers at the mill have been arrested.
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