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Inmates at the Kondengui prison in Yaounde, Cameroon have for weeks now been in fear due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Some of them say they are vulnerable due to the exposure and poor prison conditions. In a protest days back, the inmates said attention was hardly given to any patients as they were served medication without any tests or diagnosis.
Just days after the latest complaint from Anglophone inmates, jailed Separatist leader, Barrister Shufai Blaise has been rushed to hospital today May 16th 2020.
According to the communication and media chairman for the defense team of Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and other detained Separatist leaders, Barrister Shufai Blaise was taken to the military hospital in Yaounde.
The Barrister he says, was ill for over 10 days and has been on drips for the last three days.
“The treatment he received from the infirmary … has been largely inadequate” he says.
For the past 10 days, the inmate was suffering from malaria and typhoid diagnosed at the prison’s infirmary.
Though he was not responding to treatment, his lawyers say he was only rushed to hospital today “when the situation became critical as his legs began dangling.”
“He continues to complain of acute stomach ache
upon arrival in the hospital this morning many clinical exams were run on him” the lawyers note.
“He tells us that he can’t explain how he managed to arrive the hospital” they add.
Since their arrest and detention in Yaounde, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and other Separatist leaders have often decried their living conditions. With the COVID-19 outbreak, they said their lives could be on grave danger due to poor prison sanitary conditions they live in.
Till date, government is yet to officially address rumours of COVID-19 cases recorded in the country’s prisons.
Barrister Shufai was handed a life sentence by the Yaounde military court last year alongside Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and other Separatist leaders arrested from Nigeria.
Mimi Mefo Info
