Family raises alarm over failing health situation of Anglophone Crisis detainee at Kondengui prison

Years after his arrest and detention, Sama John, a Douala-based teacher is facing death, his family has told authorities.

Sama was arrested in Douala and accused of links with separatist fighters.

He was detained at the New Bell prison but soon disappeared after being whisked off by authorities.

After multiple months of search, his family found him at the dreaded Kondengui prison in Yaounde where he is held incommunicado to date.

Like many others incarcerated with links to the armed conflict in the North west and South West regions, his living conditions have been to say the least, unbearable, his family says.

From torture to being chained in cells and having little to eat, his travails are numerous.

To make matters worse, he remains in pre-trial detention, a state which often takes years to leave with the Cameroon justice system.

With a verdict yet to be passed, his family fears he may not even live to see the end of it. Sama they say has a life threatening infection gotten from the squalid conditions at the prison where he is held.

In a gory video of him making rounds on social media, the teacher’s legs appear to have been chopped into by microorganisms, with his bone nearly exposed. The condition is compounded by the fact that he remains barred from seeing his family and is chained to the bed.

His loved ones have continued to cry out to authorities and prison officials, but all appear to fall on deaf ears. Within the past five years of the armed conflict in the North West and South West regions, many have died in detention centres, while others continue to suffer in the overcrowded facilities.

Sama’s family says they fear he will soon become the next victim if action is not taken and fast.