-Inmates in Yaounde, Buea protest inhumane conditions
-Stiff response by authorities leaves many feared dead
By NOELA EBOB B., NDIMUH B. SHANCHO & IKOME CHRISTIE-NOELLA
The era of violence which has engulfed the North West and South West regions of Cameroon has also been extending its tentacles inside some major prison walls in recent times. While being a place to tame the wings of those said to have been too wild for society and in need of reformation, the prisons in Cameroon, due to over crowdedness has become an eye sore, with little or no space for inmates. This has led to frustration of some inmates, as they now turn to be violent to those they are supposed to obey.
Yaounde
The main prison facility in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde, last Monday, July 22, 2019, witnessed one of its worst incidents, when some detainees began protesting what they called marginalization as well as denounced overcrowding, judicial delays and deplorable conditions. The protests also led to a fire incident in the Kondengui Maximum Security Prisons. A Ministry of Communication release dated July 23, 2019, said a group of detainees of the Anglophone crisis were at the heart of the chaos which was live-streamed on Facebook. Demonstrators included many from the ongoing Anglophone crisis as well as jailed supporters of opposition party leader Maurice Kamto of Cameroon Renaissance Movement party.
Following the riot, many are said to have sustained injuries, the prison pharmacy burned while some other ‘VIP’ inmates were robbed in the process.
In a release, communication minister Rene Emmanuel Sadi said about 170 inmates who were identified as leaders of the rioting had been ‘arrested’. He did not specify where they were taken, but said some inmates had been moved to other facilities to make the Kondengui prison less crowded. According to the release the detainees were authorised to organise a meeting to discuss the prevailing situation in the restive North West and South West Regions, “but the move later became violent.” The release furthers that no life was lost, but that injuries were reported and no live bullets were used. Reports by rights groups however said there were injuries arising from heavy shooting at a point.
The government also confirmed a mass transfer of 77 inmates of the Kondengui Maximum prison to police and gendarmerie units in Yaounde for questioning.
The Yaounde incident is not the first, for some weeks ago, there was a bloody battle within the walls of the Yaounde Central Prison, where reports say the prison officers, in the course of their routine checks met stiff opposition from some inmates who refused their phones being seized and or their monies confiscated. The confrontation then led to a bloody battle during which many prisoners as well as officials were said to have been injured, while faeces and urine were equally used as weapons by the inmates. It should be noted that the prison which was constructed for 750 people now holds more than 6,000 inmates.
MRC lawyers demand location of militants taken away during protest
Lawyers charged with defending detained militants and sympathizers of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC) arrested during street protests in January and June, 2019, are calling on the Cameroon Government to make known the names and where-about of their clients and others carted away during the Kondengui July 22 prison protest.
In a communique published July 24, 2019, the legal minds noted that after the mass protest at the Kondengui prison, the night of July 22, 2019, some of their clients are taken to unknown destinations with the first Vice President of MRC discovered at the Secretariat of State for Defence (SED) after thorough research.
The lawyers condemned the inhumane treatment given their client at SED and called for judicial proceedings to identify and sanction those inflicting such inhumane treatment to suspects.
Buea: Gov’t, press, inmate release conflicting reports
The protest that culminated in a bloody confrontation between security officers and detainees at the Buea Central Prison, July 23, 2019, has harvested varied and conflicting reports from the Cameroon Government and some media organs in the country.
Government spokesman and Minister of Communication, Rene Emmanuel Sadi, in a press release, July 25, 2019 stated that two security officers and 43 detainees were injured, disciplinary office, Library and foot store burnt down after a confrontation between security officers and detainees at the Buea Central Prison. He maintained that no one died. Meanwhile, 20 detainees are under police custody for investigations.
Quoting an inmate at the Central Prison, The Post had published, July 26, 2019 that “some of the chained prisoners broke their chains and serious shooting followed thereafter. About 56 prisoners died”. Meanwhile local radio stations in Douala and Buea had earlier reported that up to seven, ten etc. were killed during the confrontation between inmates and security officers. The media were refused entry to the prison premises during the confrontation and access, thereafter, to independently verify this information.
The riot, which ensued from poor detention conditions and long period of detention without trial, commenced the early hours of Tuesday, July 23, 2019 as some detainees were taken out for routine manual labour. The SUN gathered that these detainees were requesting for their rights in a protest that was also marked by boycott of a court session that fateful Tuesday morning.
In a discussion with a detainee on recess, he noted that inmates connected to the Anglophone crisis who were tired of waiting for long without trial resorted to singing the Ambazonia anthem that morning. Security forces later intervened inducing a violent confrontation characterized by gun shots, use of tear gas and water cannons by security officers on the one hand, and shooting of stones, faeces by detainees on the other hand.
This inmate disclosed that gun shots by the military killed over 10 detainees, mostly those who were not part of the protest and injured several others. He stated that, shortly after the protest, identified ring leaders were immediately taken to “Salty Cell”, a-one-room house (void of a rest room) where recalcitrant inmates are taken to for discipline. “From Salty Cell, these ring leaders were blind-folded and taken to an unknown destination,” the inmate disclosed. He noted that the last group of inmates, who were suspected of planning a riot and taken away, never came back, as he wondered the fate of these ones, who were caught in the act.
In a release dated July 24, 2019, the President of the Cameroon Bar Association, Tchakoute Patie Charles, implored the Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms in the country to probe the Buea riot and a similar uproar that took place at the Kondengui Central Prison, July 22, 2019.
Meanwhile, Government spokesman Rene Emmanuel Sadi said “the government remains attentive to the appeals of these detained compatriots”.
Since 2016, hundreds of Cameroonians in the North West and South West regions have been arrested in connection to the restive Anglophone crisis and detained. This has reportedly caused a huge congestion in the prison, which now harbours close to 1000 inmates, though initially built for about 300-400 inmates.