Togo: mutiny in Lomé prison

Text by: RFI Follow

The mutiny broke out on Tuesday morning, but was quickly brought under control by the establishment's guards. The situation has now returned to normal.

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With our correspondent in Lomé ,  Peter Dogbé

The situation has been under control for a few hours. This is what a source told the prison administration to RFI, which also confirmed beforehand that the prisoners had a mood movement on Tuesday morning.

It all started on Monday when detainees at the remand center refused to accept new referrals. We had to bring these people back to the brigades. For good reason: 19 positive cases of coronavirus disease were detected on Sunday out of 283 detainees tested. Caught in fear, the detainees demand their release or at least their relocation in order to protect themselves from contamination.

The conditions of imprisonment in Lomé prison are regularly denounced. The Lomé prison is an old colonial building supposed to accommodate only 600 detainees. Today there are more than 1,500 detainees in this prison. It is also a prison which has also been the subject of several reports by human rights organizations. The most recent is that of the United Nations Committee against Torture. This organization believed that this prison is inappropriate for detention standards.

It is also in this prison that Kpatcha Gnassingbé is found , the half-brother of President Faure Gnassingbé, who has been serving his 20 years in prison for breaches of state security for over 10 years. According to the latest news, Kpatcha Gnassingbé was allegedly exfiltrated this morning for an unknown destination.

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