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The UN’s top expert on torture on Thursday criticised overcrowding in Senegal’s prisons, warning that it could spark violence at any moment or lead to the spread of disease.
Alice Jill Edwards, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on torture, described the overcrowding as “dramatic and inhumane” following a fact-finding visit to the West African nation.
“I am deeply worried that the overcrowding problem is a tinderbox that could ignite at any moment, leading to riots, violence, or the rapid and uncontrollable spread of infectious and communicable diseases,” she said.
Senegal’s government needs to take “bolder steps” to ensure prison conditions meet international standards, she added in a statement.
Edwards, who was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but does not speak on behalf of the UN, visited five prisons and saw prisoners lying head to toe and sharing mattresses in “severely congested” sleeping quarters.
“Some rooms were quite literally teeming with people. Prisoners were sleeping in shifts and in corridors, and there were far too few ablution facilities… The situation is at crisis point,” she said.
Edwards welcomed plans to increase electronic tagging and the construction of new facilities.
However, she urged the repeal of an amnesty law introduced before the last election in March 2024 by the administration of former President Macky Sall.
The law covers political violence between 2021 and 2024, which left 79 people dead, according to official figures.
“The government has an obligation to establish the truth regarding these events and to provide justice and reparations to victims in a timely manner,” the rapporteur said.
Senegal’s government has announced a bill in parliament to repeal the amnesty law.
AFP
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