A Naval medical officer discusses how detainees on hunger strikes are cared for in the hospital at Camp Delta where detainees are housed at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba on July 8, 2010. UPI/Roger L. Wollenberg | License Photo

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, April 21 (UPI) -- About half of the 166 prisoners at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are on a hunger strike, officials said Sunday.

A prison spokesman said 84 inmates at Guantanamo Bay are currently on a hunger strike, 16 of whom are being force fed through tubes that run through their noses to their stomachs, The Miami Herald reported.


Five of the hunger strikers have been hospitalized, Army Lt. Col. Samuel House said, adding none of them "have any life-threatening conditions."

Officials said the number of prisoners on hunger strikes has risen since U.S. troops raided a communal medium-security compound at the prison April 13. Inmates being held in the compound had covered up most of the prison's surveillance cameras and kept themselves largely out of view of the guards.

After the raid, about 65 prisoners were put under single-occupancy cell lockdown.