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“In my ward initially constructed to host thirty inmates, today we are one hundred and forty seven and the number keeps increasing by the day” an inmate at the Buea Central Prison in the South West region of Cameroon told his defending lawyer barrister Njong Henry Tita Wednesday March 18th 2020.
With the rapid spread of the coronavirus in Cameroon, Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute called on people to maintain a considerable distance to avoid easy transmission. Bar. Njong Henry Tita has told Mimi Mefo Info that “…the condition of my clients at the Buea central prison is deplorable. I broke down to tears when I got their story. They live in very congested wards. They can’t sleep. They can only stand throughout the night under excruciating heat”.
According to the lawyer, the fundamental rights of prisoners are violated at all levels at Buea Central prison.
“I am particularly so saddened with the way the government is treating our brothers and sisters in the Buea central prison. With the outbreak of coronavirus, these inmates risk being wiped out should the virus reach there. Warders and new inmates flow into the prison everyday and are potential carriers of this virus to the prison”.
“ I am calling on the government to immediately and without delay decongest the prison to safe the life of incarcerated compatriots” Bar. Njong Henry Tita;l, counsel for the defence of detainees connected to the Anglophone crisis adds.
It should be recalled that a great number of inmates at Buea Central Prison are people arbitrary arrested and detained since the beginning of the Anglophone crisis in 2016.
Cover photo: web
Mimi Mefo Info.
