Benin’s prisons are overcrowded, reveals an Amnesty International report published on August 1, 2024. The NGO was authorized to visit the eleven Beninese prisons and conducted a survey of inmates and guards for a year. The findings are alarming: high density and extremely difficult conditions inside.
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With our correspondent in Cotonou, Jean Luc Aplogan
According to Amnesty International, there are too many cells compared to the available places. The cells are dilapidated and overcrowded.
” Eleven prisons have a staff that varies between three and sometimes even six times their capacity. There is a lack of water, the right to health is not respected. Several people, in detention, have spent between 5 and 20 years in prison without being tried. “, denounces Dieudonné Dagbéto, executive director of Amnesty International Benin.
The prison population exceeded 18,000 inmates in 2023. It has almost tripled in seven years. A clear example is the remand center in the capital, Porto Novo. Built for 250 prisoners, it now houses more than 1,500 residents. The Amnesty International report also notes 46 deaths in the first half of last year, recorded in the country’s prisons.
Asked whether these deaths are solely due to overpopulation, the executive director of Amnesty International Benin replied in the affirmative: “Certainly. We do not have all the evidence and that is what led us to send a letter to the Commissioner of Justice to find out more. “.
At the end of its report, Amnesty International advocates for the provision of drinking water in prisons. It also recommends the ventilation of cells as well as strong actions to relieve congestion, such as, for example, processing, quickly, the files of prisoners awaiting trial.
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