At least 44 suspected members of Boko Haram who were arrested during a recent operation against the group have been found dead in their prison cell in Chad after apparently being poisoned, the country’s chief prosecutor has announced.

The prisoners were found dead on Thursday, Youssouf Tom said on television, and an autopsy carried out on four of the dead prisoners revealed traces of a lethal substance that had caused heart attacks in some of the victims and severe asphyxiation in the others, he said.

The dead men were among a group of 58 suspects captured during a major army operation around Lake Chad launched by President Idriss Deby at the end of March.

“Following the fighting around Lake Chad, 58 members of Boko Haram had been taken prisoner and sent to Ndjamena for the purposes of the investigation,” Tom said, referencing the central African country’s capital. “On Thursday morning, their jailers told us that 44 prisoners had been found dead in their cell.”

“We have buried 40 bodies and sent four bodies to the medical examiner for autopsy,” he added.

An investigation was continuing to determine exactly how the prisoners had died, he said.

Source: Al Jazeera