According to Human Rights Watch: "Human Rights Watch documented numerous cases of torture at the Nampala military camp in Ségou region. Human Rights Watch interviewed 26 detainees who said they had suffered torture and other ill-treatment, and were witnesses to other cases of severe mistreatment in military camps. Most of these cases occurred in the first half of 2015. [...] Witnesses and victims described some 10 men held by soldiers in Nampala between April and June who were being tortured in a similar manner: after the detainees were hogtied and suspended in a corner by an iron bar, soldiers interrogated and beat them. Three men said a small fire was lit under them during interrogation, while several others said bricks were put on their backs to increase the pressure on their hands. Two men subjected to this abuse said they lost consciousness. One said: Some minutes later, it was my turn. They kicked my feet out from under me, tied my feet and hands with rubber cord, then pushed an iron bar through the cord ties, and hung me like an animal inside the corridor. “Do you know the jihadists who attacked Nampala? Tell us!” [they said]. They lit a fire that reached to about one foot from my boubou. They put wood and paper to feed the fire. Later one of them burned my foot. After 15 minutes, they took me down and it was [name withheld’s] turn. [...] As has been the case since 2012, the vast majority of detainees said the abuse stopped after they were handed over to government gendarmes. Several torture victims described heated discussions when gendarmes observed the signs of abuse or torture. One said: “When the gendarme saw our open wounds, that we could barely walk, he screamed at the soldiers, ‘Look at what you’ve done to these people! You have no right to do this, rebel or not. Is this normal? Were you not trained?’” Several victims said they were taken for medical treatment to a local clinic, and that gendarmes insisted that medical certificates of their injuries received while in army custody be included in their legal dossiers. Human Rights Watched documented fewer cases of mistreatment when people were arrested by soldiers accompanied by gendarmes who have the mandated role of provost marshal. When asked why gendarmes are not always present in military operations, a Defense Ministry official told Human Right Watch: “They can’t be everywhere, and the mistreatment often happens in isolated places.” ^[+]