Is Yaounde Preparing Another Prison Upheaval in Kondengui?
Yaounde is allegedly preparing another prison uprising across the road at the Prison Principale de Kondengui, sources have revealed. This strike is expected to be bloodier and if possible, lead to loss of life. The source said the authorities have been inspired by the recent strike at Prison Centrale after which hundreds of inmates were brutally tortured including MRC Vice President, Mota. The envisaged transfer of some inmates from the dreaded Kossovo quarter to the Principale Prison is seen as a dormant volcano.
According to the source, Yaounde is presently increasing security around the prison; walls are being scaled up and measures have been taken to make the inmates more uncomfortable and irritable. At the moment, inmates at the Prison Principale Yaounde enjoy long hours of visits. Cubicles are presently being constructed, the purpose being to eventually curtail the visiting period from six hours to not more than 15minutes a day. Inmates will henceforth not have body contact with their family members, our source hinted as they will be screened off.
Once the reception cubicles will be completed, the inmate population will be increased drastically by more than half. Prior to the riots in the bigger prison, the Prison Principale had not more than 160 inmates. Following the riots across the road, 56 inmates from the bigger prison were moved across in what looks like a decongestion effort, our source has said, but this is not true. This move has already caused overcrowding in this prison. The cells that hitherto hosted a maximum of 10 inmates, (a man to a bed) now host a minimum of 15persons per room.
The new inmates mostly sleep on the floor. This situation is already irritating the inmates who were hitherto used to a man to a bed. Hygiene conditions have suddenly become very poor, the night air is highly polluted leading to incessant colds and flu. Our source hinted that plans are on the way to ship in as many as 76 more inmates from across the road to this smaller facility.
This is what is expected to provoke the explosion. Many of the awaited inmates will be sent to Quarter 3 where Prof Maurice Kamto and members of his coalition are detained. The authorities expect that the Kamto group will resist this move, leading to confrontations. Most of the inmates expected to make the move from Prison Centrale to Prison Principale will come from the dreaded Kossovo Quarters, the same who is alleged to have been used to start the night upheavals in Yaounde’s bigger prison.
According to our source, the plan has been carefully planned to further bring confusion among the MRC leadership and taint the image of the protesting professor. Seeing that the Ambazonian leaders are in this same prison facility, our source fears that they will get entangled in the expected confusion and that there might be targeted shootings and eliminations. The days ahead are very ominous, he said.
