Tragedy hits some Anglophone Detainees in Kondengui Prison

One of the Anglophone detainees at the Kondengui prison has been reported dead.

The news of the death of the detained Anglophone was broken by the Ayah foundation that has been very active in the provision of assistance to the detainees.

The foundation coordinator Abine Ayah Ayah said in reaction to the death that, “I have been reliably informed of the death of Woliem Vitalis in hospital, one of the 'Anglophone' detainees at Kondengui whose deplorable and declining health condition was supervised by the Ayah Foundation,” he said.

He went further to narrate the ordeal of the young man before he died. He said, “Vitalis was in hospital for over a month as from the month of January under the supervision of the Ayah Foundation. I personally took care of him alongside his wife. I saw how bad he was before he was discharged. He didn't fully recover from his ill-health, but was forced back to prison by the authorities despite the pleas of both the family and myself to the contrary, as we insisted that he be maintained therein or rather transferred to Shisong for more intensive care. He suffered from chronic cerebral malaria among several other illnesses, which rendered him almost insane. There were moments he was chained in bed because he was increasingly violent. But the authorities preferred dragging him back to detention in a very worrying state. At the time he was to be rushed back to the hospital, he was in very terrible shape, unable to make out even his wife's identity as we were told. We were equally told that the prison authorities resisted letting him return to hospital on grounds that a certain sum of money had to be paid before that could be done,” he narrated.

He added that the death of Vitalis could have been avoided if he was treated humanely. He said the doctors took over 90 minutes trying to save his life but that ‘all hopes to save the inevitable appeared to have been lost,” he added.

TCR sent a message to Abine Ayah Ayah to get more of his revelations about the death of Vitalis but he only promised to grant us an interview in the days ahead.

Meanwhile, TCR learnt that two of the Anglophone detainees who are in Kondengui have been sentenced.

According to sources, Njinoh Titus and Fung Calemba were both sentenced to 12 and 10 years in prison respectively and in absentia. They were both sentenced on February 21, 2018.

Njinoh Titus, besides his sentence has been ordered by the court to pay the sum of FCFA1million into the state treasury and prison fines amounting to FCFA 463,280. And if he can’t pay both sums, he will have to serve another 18 month jail term.

Meanwhile, Fung Calemba, besides his 10 year jail term has damages amounting to FCFA 328,946 money which if he can’t pay, will have to serve another 12 month jail term.

The two are the first Anglophone detainees to be sentenced since arrests and detentions in connection with the ongoing Anglophone crisis began.

By FHM