According to Amnesty International: The case of Aliyu – a 55-year-old farmer and local business-man from Potiskum – is typical. He told Amnesty International that he and about 20 of his neighbours were arrested on 13 April 2013 during a mass arrest by soldiers in his village.26 He said they were taken to Potiskum army base, Yobe state, where they were tortured by soldiers accusing them of being Boko Haram. Aliyu described being told to dig his own grave: when he had finished digging, the soldiers tied his hands behind his back and blindfolded him. He told Amnesty International that he thought he was going to be killed, but instead he was told to lie on the ground with the other detainees and the soldiers beat them with sticks. Aliyu spent one week at the Potiskum army base. He said he was not fed and only given water to drink once a day. For one hour every morning and every evening, he said the soldiers took turns to beat him and the other detainees with sticks and gun butts. He said they slept outside on the ground in their bloodstained clothes. After a week, he was transferred to Sector Alpha in Damaturu where he spent a further three weeks incommunicado: with no contact with the outside world, including his family or any lawyer. Aliyu was held for a total of one month during which he was interrogated but never formally charged with any offence, before being released along with some of his neighbours." ^[+]