Detained Anglophone punished for requesting COVID-19 safety measures in Yaounde prison

An Anglophone inmate at the Mfou prison near Yaounde whose name we got as Babila is being disciplined by warders for asking if new comers into the facility have been tested for the novel coronavirus.

Babila has spent eight months at the detention facility after what he described as illegal arrest and detention..

The inmate revealed to MMI that he has been locked up in solitary confinement “for asking if new prisoners who were brought in have been tested before being brought in.”

He is reportedly unwell “after he was beaten before being locked up in the cell,” Mimi Mefo Info has learnt.

The inmate said to be a sympathiser of the MRC party was a former inmate at the Kondengui prison in Yaounde but was transferred to Mfou after the July 22, 2019 prison riot.

Over the last days, inmates in detention facilities around the country have been expressing concerns over their safety, decrying hygienic conditions as the deadly coronavirus spreads. Cameroon is now counting 685 covid-19 cases and 9 deaths.

Their worries were heightened last week after an inmate suspected of haven contracted the virus was confined.

Rights groups have since called for the facilitation of trials to liberate the overcrowded detention centers of prisoners most of whom are still in pretrial detention.

MMI