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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 YAOUNDE 000825 
 
STATE FOR AF/C AND DRL 
PARIS AND LONDON FOR AFRICA WATCHERS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/W 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV CASC CM
SUBJECT: A VISIT TO CAMEROON'S PRISONS 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  Embassy Yaounde's Political Specialist recently 
visited the prisons of Douala New Bell, in the Littoral Region, and 
Buea and Kumba in the South West Region.  These three prisons often 
top the headlines because of violence, revolts, and escape attempts. 
 Douala's prison is dismal and terribly overcrowded.  The most 
pressing problems across the board are a lack of infrastructure, 
overcrowding, promiscuity and health challenges such as HIV/AIDS. 
These prisons lack the most basic infrastructure, and prisoners must 
rely on family members to provide many necessities.  This message 
details the situation in the three visited prisons.  The Minister of 
Justice and penitentiary and judicial authorities were receptive to 
our visit and hoped for future collaboration with the USG.  End 
summary. 
 
Prisons: Three Samples 
---------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) Douala New Bell: New Bell was a former military camp that the 
colonial administration turned into a prison with a capacity of 700 
detainees.  Today, it holds 2,813 inmates, including 395 convicts, 
2,266 pre-trial detainees and 149 detainees undergoing an appeal 
process.  Among the inmates, 60 are minors and 49 are women. 
Pretrial detainees and convicts are mixed together.  A staff of 150 
people, including guards, is responsible for the prison.  Many 
prisoners run businesses, including "restaurants," barbershops, and 
"general stores" that sell basics such as soap and canned food. 
Living conditions have historically been so harsh that the 
Cameroonian NGO Action of Christians for the Abolition of Torture 
(ACAT) has called New Bell a "dehumanization center."  Some new 
construction at the complex will ease conditions for a portion of 
the population (see para 5.) 
 
¶3. (U) Buea: This decrepit colonial-era prison has eight cellblocks, 
one dormitory for minors, and one dormitory for women.  With an 
initial capacity for 200 inmates, it now has 420.  One hundred are 
convicts and 320 are pretrial detainees, including six women and 
twenty-four minors.  Prison conditions are inadequate.  Two of the 
eight cells are reserved for pretrial detainees.  Fifty prison 
workers, including guards, take care of the 420 prisoners.  All 
roofs leak greatly when it rains, causing particular suffering 
during the rainy season.  Because there is little shelter, inmates 
gather their beds in corners where there is less leakage.  In one 
building, the ceiling was covered with plastic buckets that inmates 
had hung to catch water leaks. 
 
¶4. (U) Kumba: The Kumba prison facilities are slightly better than 
in Douala and Buea.  The buildings are part of the colonial 
heritage, but have had some maintenance over the years.  The 
seventy-seven year old prison was built for 200 prisoners.  Today, 
the prison holds 481 inmates, including 242 pretrial detainees (221 
men, 4 women, and 17 minors).  There are 239 convicts (181 men, 10 
women, 9 minors).  This population includes 39 foreigners, mostly 
Nigerians.   Minors and women live in separate quarters.  Pretrial 
detainees are separated from convicts.  Forty prison workers, 
including guards, take care of the 481 prisoners. 
 
Living conditions 
----------------- 
 
¶5. (U) Room and Board: In New Bell prison, the sixty-one minors have 
moved into their new facilities.  The forty-nine women will soon be 
moving from a temporary building into a new facility, once their 
beds are ordered.  At the moment, all men live under "tents" made 
out of plastic sheets.  They sleep on two, three, or four-story 
homemade bunk beds.  These beds are constructed from pieces of 
plywood, which are held together with rubber inner tubes.  Cardboard 
boxes serve as mattresses.  Restrooms do not meet even minimum 
sanitary standards.  Tremendous overcrowding means that a 
significant number of detainees must live outside, rain or shine. 
The "VIP corner" (former ministers, former general managers of 
public corporations, and some former high profile civil servants) is 
better than the rest of the prison, with a dormitory and six 
individual cells.  In the Buea prison, a majority of prisoners have 
one or two story wooden or iron beds.  In some cells, there is only 
one single bed for two detainees.  Detainees without beds sleep on 
"mattresses" or synthetic rugs that are placed underneath a bed. 
The situation is not much different in Kumba where detainees also 
share beds or sleep on the floor. 
 
¶6. (U) Food and Water: Conditions in Douala have recently improved 
due to an increase in the food budget.  Prisoners now receive two 
meals per day.  Many inmates look malnourished, with bony cheeks and 
protruding eyes.  The prison diet is composed of corn, beans, rice, 
and peanut sauce, all mixed with palm oil.  In the Kumba prison, the 
administration occasionally adds in vegetables and smoked fish, if 
the food budget allows.  The prisoners themselves prepare their 
food, under the supervision of wardens.  Families of prisoners can 
bring cooked food, which has to be tasted by family members before 
 
YAOUNDE 00000825  002 OF 004 
 
 
it can be served to the prisoner or they can bring uncooked food 
that the prisoner can cook himself.  Running water is available in 
Douala and Buea, but in Kumba water is stored in tanks. 
 
¶7. (U) Bathrooms: In New Bell prison, "bathrooms" are very narrow 
rooms with no doors for privacy.  All the latrine pits are 
overloaded, and when it rains there is overflow which spreads all 
over the prison yard.  The odor is pervasive throughout.  In the 
Buea prison, each of the eight cellblocks has a bathroom.  In the 
Kumba prison, there is a very simple courtyard where prisoners can 
take bucket baths.  In all three prisons, women and minors have 
their own bathrooms. 
 
Health 
------ 
 
¶8. (U) There is a infirmary in each of the three prisons.  New Bell 
has eight beds, Buea three, and Kumba one.  The New Bell prison has 
one permanently posted medical doctor and five nurses.  The Buea 
prison has one permanently posted medical doctor and one nurse.  The 
Kumba prison has a senior nurse who takes care of patients.  The 
Kumba prison warden recently signed an agreement with the Saint 
Francis Clinic, a private hospital, for pro bono consultations and 
treatment.  For serious cases, prisoners at all three prisons can be 
transferred to a hospital, provided that the family pays for 
transportation, medical appointments and any needed medicine.  As 
three wardens noted, many prisoners have no one to cover such costs 
and as a result there are occasional deaths due to the lack of 
advanced medical treatment (although no case was reported in any of 
the prisons in 2009). 
 
¶9. (U) The availability of drugs remains an issue, although basic 
drugs (painkillers, anti-malarials) are available in limited 
quantities.  In New Bell, the total budget for pharmaceuticals is 
$5,000.  The Douala Archdiocese provides drugs to treat 
tuberculosis, while the German development agency GTZ provides 
testing and drugs for HIV/AIDS patients.  To make more drugs 
available and at cheaper prices, the Kumba prison warden also 
recently signed an agreement with a private pharmacy.  Diarrhea, 
skin diseases and tuberculosis are the primary illnesses seen in the 
prisons.  HIV/AIDS is increasingly becoming a serious issue.  All 
three wardens noted that they had several people living with 
HIV/AIDS in their penitentiaries.  None were able to provide post 
with any statistics, citing confidentiality concerns. 
Tuberculosis-infected patients are isolated from the other 
prisoners. 
 
Relaxation 
----------- 
 
¶10. (U) Entertainment: In all three prisons, there were television 
sets, CD players, stereos, and DVDs in cells or open spaces.  The 
detainees can listen to music and watch television programs of their 
choice, without any restrictions.  They can also watch movies, 
without any censorship.  This may change in the Kumba prison in the 
near future as the warden feels that violent television programs or 
movies should be limited, but no formal decision has been made.  Of 
the three prisons, Kumba is the only place where prisoners have a 
sports field.  Buea is the only prison with a library, which is well 
attended. 
 
Other Critical Issues 
--------------------- 
 
¶11. (U) Criminality: Prisons, especially New Bell, harbor an 
underworld, and extortion and harassment are reportedly common. 
"Anti-gangs" (some of the heavily-sentenced convicts) are the bosses 
inside the prison.  They control facilities such as beds and 
bathrooms and extort money from prisoners who wish to use them. 
There are occasional violent outbreaks when a group of prisoners 
rejects subjugation. 
 
¶12. (SBU) Corruption:  Corruption is also rampant in the prisons. 
Wardens are often the initiators of such corruption.  In Buea for 
instance, the State Counsel told post about a warden who collected 
money from a detainee with the promise that he would help accelerate 
the processing of his file.  The prosecutor demanded that the 
detainee be reimbursed, and gave the warden a warning.  The warden 
continues to work at the prison. 
 
¶13. (U) Transportation: The New Bell prison has received two new 
trucks for the transportation of detainees to and from court, but 
the Buea and Kumba prisons function without a single vehicle. 
Wardens walk with detainees to and from the courthouse.  For those 
detainees who have family members who can afford it, the 
penitentiary administration calls a taxi to take the detainee and 
the warders to court.  For the most dangerous prisoners, both the 
administrative personnel and warders contribute money to rent a 
 
YAOUNDE 00000825  003 OF 004 
 
 
taxi.  The fact that wardens walk city streets with prisoners 
exposes them to potential assaults by the accomplices of the very 
dangerous prisoners (who are afraid the prisoner might testify 
against them), by persons holding a grudge against the accused, or 
by accomplices helping the prisoner escape.  Various officials told 
Poloff that they had to cancel planned vehicular transfers of 
dangerous prisoners to the courthouse due to lack of money and 
vehicles, thus forcing courts to adjourn cases. 
 
Other prison practices 
---------------------- 
 
¶14. (U) Constrained detention:  This term refers to those prisoners 
who are kept in jail after serving their prison term because they 
have not been able to pay the fines and/or damages that were part of 
their sentence.  Although none of the three wardens was able to give 
specific numbers, New Bell officials estimated they had dozens of 
such cases, while Buea and Kumba had just a few.  In Douala, the 
nongovernmental organization Action of Christians for the Abolition 
of Torture (ACAT) estimated that there are approximately one hundred 
such cases.  Minors and seniors above sixty years of age are 
released, even if they have not been able to pay these fines.  The 
prison administration acts under the judiciary branch, which argues 
that such constrained detention is the sole manner to ensure all 
fines and damages are paid. 
 
¶15. (U) Administrative detentions:  In order to maintain public 
order and fight crime, the administrative authority (Governor or 
Prefet) has the power to order the arrest and detention of an 
individual for a period of fifteen days, with one possible 
extention.  This legal provision has resulted in abuses by some 
authorities, as we have documented in previous human rights 
reporting.  The New Bell prison was the only place where such 
detainees (about fifty) were found.  These fifty detainees, ranging 
from students to prostitutes, had been detained for about two months 
at the time of Pol Specialist's visit to the prison.  The Prefet of 
Wouri Division ordered their administrative detention, following 
their arrest during a neighborhood sweep.  The New Bell Prison 
warden expressed his frustration with having such detainees and on 
the morning of Pol Specialist's visit to the prison, he had just had 
a meeting with the Prefet to demand their release.  The Douala 
prosecutor, when asked about these administrative detainees, said 
that administrative detention was a prerogative of the territorial 
command administration and that the judiciary could do nothing.  He 
added that the judiciary could intervene if the concerned filed a 
complaint against the administrative officer who ordered his/her 
detention. 
 
Reintegration programs 
---------------------- 
 
¶16. (U) Education of minors: The three prisons that post visited had 
a classroom for the education of minors.  Teachers were fellow 
detainees, who may or may not have been trained teachers. 
 
¶17. (U) Vocational training:  Only Buea and Kumba run reintegration 
programs to teach vocational skills.  In Buea, male prisoners can 
learn poultry and plantain farming techniques.  Women can be trained 
as seamstresses, in collaboration with local professionals.  The 
European Union will soon be sponsoring masonry and carpentry classes 
in Buea.  In Kumba, there are three sewing machines to train 
inmates.  Prisoners can also learn to grow pigs through a program 
with the Divisional Delegation of Fisheries, Cattle-breeding, and 
Animal Industries.  After their release, prisoners who participate 
in this program will receive two pigs (male and female) to start a 
business.  Prisoners in Kumba can also learn to make handicrafts 
such as market bags.  Because of limited funds at all three prisons, 
the number of prisoners who can participate in vocational training 
programs is very limited. 
 
Pre- and Post-trial Follow-up 
----------------------------- 
 
¶18. (U) During the visit of the Buea and Kumba prisons, pol 
specialist was startled by the number of inmates who followed the 
visiting group, which included the State Counsel.  Many of the 
detainees wanted to voice their grievances to the State Counsel. 
The role of the State Counsel is to make sure that the rights of 
prisoners (processing of files, issuance of convocations for 
hearings in courts, etc.) are guaranteed and respected.  For this 
reason, he/she is required by law to regularly visit prisons.  The 
State Counsel also has the right to delegate this function to 
assistants, but in this case assistants apparently had not been 
fulfilling their job responsibilities, as many prisoners had never 
met with State Counsel staff.  One example was the case of a police 
officer who had been detained since February 2007 for the 
unauthorized use of his gun during the student riots at the 
University of Buea.  The State Counsel noted that he was surprised 
 
YAOUNDE 00000825  004 OF 004 
 
 
to hear so many complaints as he sends his assistants to the prison 
every week in order to monitor all cases.  He promised to return in 
order to devote more time to those in need of his action and the 
power of his authority.  Post has since learned that he fulfilled 
his promise by returning to the prison, and he has also been 
investigating assistants for not fulfilling their job 
responsibilities. 
 
¶19. (U) The follow-up of detainees' files is a critical issue. 
Detainees who can afford a lawyer are always aware of their case's 
progress (dates and times of appearance before the instructing 
magistrate or the court, date of release, etc).  For the rest, cases 
are occasionally lost in the bureaucratic shuffle for years.  Post 
learned that it is common for detainees to miss several hearings on 
their case simply because they were not informed of the hearings. 
The State Counsel for the Douala High Court told post that this 
situation is unfortunate, but that the ongoing computerization of 
courts and prisons should reduce this problem.  Under the 
computerized system, once the instructing magistrate has forwarded 
the detainee's file to a judge, this information will automatically 
appear in the prison's computer.  The prison administration would 
likewise be automatically informed when the judge sets a trial date, 
thus ensuring adequate advance notice to arrange for the prisoner's 
transfer to the courthouse.  The Ministry of Justice, with financial 
and technical assistance from the Commonwealth, hopes to complete 
the computerization process in 2012. 
 
GRC Wants to Improve 
-------------------- 
 
¶20.  (SBU) The GRC acknowledges its prison problems and has asked 
the Embassy for help in improving the situation.  In January 2009, 
Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Amadou Ali provided post 
with his ministry's action plan to improve conditions in Cameroon's 
prisons, including the New Bell, Buea and Kumba prisons.  Among 
other things, the plan calls for refurbishing New Bell prison, 
constructing a new central prison in Douala, and purchasing two 
trucks.  Some of those projects have already been implemented, but 
most improvements have moved slowly, ostensibly because of budget 
constraints. 
 
Comment 
-------- 
 
¶21. (SBU) The Minister of Justice granted Embassy Yaounde immediate, 
unprecedented access to the prisons, with only 48 hours notice, and 
he seemed genuinely interested in a readout after the visits.  Pol 
Specialist was able to inspect all corners of the prison, and felt 
that little "make-ready" had been done before his arrival.  The 
prison situation is one of Cameroon's major human rights challenges 
and has been highlighted in several post human rights reports over 
the past few years.  We will continue to engage the government, NGO 
activists and other donor partners to improve prisons and will look 
for ways to materially support the GRC in its prison reform efforts. 
 Post is not aware of any American citizens detained in these 
facilities.  End comment. 
 
Peterson