Punishment and the separatist insurrection ignite Cameroonian prisons

Crushed in cells ravaged by the disease, without beds, little food and even less hope, detainees in Cameroonian prisons were already tense before the influx of political detainees and English-speaking separatists stirred up a mixture explosive.

This week, in an overcrowded central prison in the capital Yaounde, hundreds of prisoners have rebelled against their deplorable conditions because of the resurgence of violence broadcast on Facebook.

On Monday, videos of prisoners ransacking and burning the Kondengui Prison Library and a sewing workshop were broadcast on social media before the security forces crushed the community.

While filming on the phone, the detainees posted excerpts from their protest, chanting: "We want more than food to eat," and "We want to go to court".

A day later, the security services had restored control.

But the riot highlighted the crisis in the nation's prisons in Central Africa, exacerbated by repression against opposition parties, Boko Haram militants, and by a separatist uprising that has shaken the English-speaking regions since 2016.

"Prison overcrowding is exacerbated by the socio-political crisis that began in 2016 in the English-speaking areas and by the post-election crisis," said Maximilienne Ngo Mbe, director of the local REDHAC rights group.

"The situation in the Cameroonian prisons has become catastrophic (…) How is it that people languish in prison for two or three years without being judged."

The Cameroonian prison population has steadily increased from 23,500 in 2013 to nearly 31,000 in December 2017, according to the latest report published in 2018 by the Cameroon National Commission for Human Rights and Freedoms.

Kondengui Prison, the scene of the riot, was built to house 1,500 detainees, but it is estimated that it would house more than twice as many.

Some prison occupancy rates are three times higher than normal capacity, according to official data.

Human rights groups say prisons are also affected by tuberculosis, HIV, AIDS, cholera and scabies.

Increasing number

Since 2017, fighting between government troops and English-speaking separatists demanding independence in two areas of the west has killed hundreds of people and forced nearly 500,000 people from their homes.

The government has rejected the claims of autonomy and repressed the English-speaking communities, who take offense at what they see as discrimination by the French-speaking majority.

Some prisons are filled with Anglophone activists accused of activism by the authorities, but who are not yet tried.

In Buea, the capital of an English-speaking region, tensions erupted Tuesday in a prison housing many separatist detainees – a day after the revolt in Yaoundé.

Shots were heard around the prison and flames and smoke rose from his roof, witnesses said.

Opposition leaders say that they face a crackdown since they began protesting against the re-election of Cameroonian President Paul Biya (C). By ALEXIS HUGUET (AFP)

Analysts believe that prisons are increasingly political incubators, especially because the opposition party, the MRC, is facing repression.

The leader of the party, Maurice Kamto, has been incarcerated in Yaoundé since January after claiming that the results of the presidential election of 2018 had been rigged.

The official winner – President Paul Biya, who has been in power for 36 years – has long sought to control the country's political space.

Last month, hundreds of opposition supporters were also arrested.

Many were released, but after riots in Kondengui Prison, lawyers from still-detained MRC members claimed that several of them had been taken to a detention center of the security forces.

Human Rights Watch warned that "over the past year, security forces in such facilities have" used torture without fear of repercussion ".

Packed in cells

Prison overcrowding is also blamed on the fight against Nigerian-based Boko Haram jihadists who have launched numerous attacks in the country.

For years, the prisons of Cameroon's big cities have experienced difficulties, says Marie Morelle, a geographer at the University Paris 1 and specialist in prisons in the country.

In the north of the country, the imprisonment of Boko Haram fighters and the crackdown on alleged separatist militants have accentuated overcrowding in the northern Maroua prison, she said.

The arrival of political prisoners in recent years has fostered the expression of grievances, added Morelle.

Biya has been in power for more than three decades and critics say her election has been rigged. By Brendan Smialowski (AFP)

Mutinies in Cameroonian prisons are not uncommon. In 2015, a revolt broke out in the Garaoua prison in the north of the country, following the death of an inmate.

He died of suffocation after being locked in a disciplinary cell of 4 square meters and full of 22 people.

In 2016, a riot broke out in the same prison because of the lack of drinking water.

A year later, in Baffoussam, in the west of the country, the prisoners protested against the conditions of detention. In Kumbo, a prison was partially destroyed by riot and fire.