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Cameroon security forces cracked down on the riot of prisoners who searched and burned a prison in Yaounde overnight, witnesses told AFP on Tuesday.
The rioters, many of whom were government opponents or supporters of an English-speaking separatist movement in the west of the country, filmed their protest and posted elements on Facebook.
Several detainees were injured, prison sources said, including former prime minister Inoni Ephraim and former minister Urbain Olenguena Awono, who were targeted by other prisoners.
Ephraim, imprisoned for 20 years after being found guilty of corruption in 2016, was hospitalized.
"Shots were fired all night – it was like a firework," said a resident at AFP while security forces were fighting the uprising.
Local media reported that no one had been killed and no prisoners had escaped.
Amnesty International on Tuesday urged the authorities to avoid "excessive force" and to open an investigation into the use "of firearms and live ammunition".
In a statement, the government said that "no real fire was used during the operation" in the prison.
An AFP journalist observed that Calm appeared to have returned to prison on Tuesday as police and soldiers cordoned off the prison.
On social media, inmates demanded their release and better food.
Overcrowded prison
The overcrowded central prison in Yaounde, known as Kondengui, was built to house 1,500 inmates, but it is estimated that it will house more than double that prison.
It hosts many people arrested since the beginning of the English separatist uprising of 2016. Many are currently serving long prison sentences, others waiting to be judged.
"Crises are piling up, more and more prisoners in an already overcrowded prison," said Maximilienne Ngo Mbe, executive director of the REDHAC advocacy group.
Cameroon is going through a security crisis between the English-speaking separatist regions of the west and the French-speaking population of the rest of the world.
In the north, the Nigerian jihadist group Boko Haram also organizes regular armed attacks.
The country is also facing political pressure after the head of the Cameroon Movement for the Renaissance (MRC), Maurice Kamto, and a hundred supporters of the party were arrested in January and remain in detention.
President Paul Biya has been in power for 36 years.
MRC Secretary General Christopher Ndong told AFP that security forces on Tuesday took several prominent members of the separatist movement – considered leaders of the revolt – from prison to an unknown destination.
In Cameroon, more than one in six – 4.3 million people – need humanitarian aid, an increase of 30% over 2018, according to aid officials. # 39; UN.
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