Blaise Dariustone |
N’Djamena, Feb 3 (EFE).- In the middle of the Sahara desert, in northern Chad, stands a maximum security prison known as the “Chadian Guantanamo” and built for Boko Haram jihadists and major criminals, but which also houses to political prisoners.
The object of numerous criticisms by human rights defenders, the Koro Toro prison is a real prison located in a settlement in the Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti region that, in addition to this prison, houses an airport.
It is so impassable that in Chad it is often compared to the US Guantanamo prison in Cuba, famous for holding accused terrorists.
“In this prison there are no houses nearby. It is impossible for the prisoners to escape from this prison and save their lives,” Josué Alladoum, a soldier and former Koro Toro guard, told EFE.
«No one has ever escaped from this prison and has crossed this whole desert on foot. You have to walk several hundred kilometers on sand without drinking water to reach a city. For this reason, all the prisoners who try to escape from this prison die on the way,” says Alladoum.
Away from the population
The prison is located about 600 kilometers north of N’Djamena, the capital, and according to the authorities, most of the inmates are members of the Nigerian jihadist group Boko Haram (which operates in Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon) and criminals who have committed serious crimes.
The prison, inaugurated in 2003 and with which it is impossible to communicate except through military high-frequency (HF) radios or satellite phones, houses some 700 prisoners, according to what former Minister of Justice and Human Rights Djimet Arabi told EFE.
“It is a prison that was built to hold highwaymen and terrorists. This is the concern that guided the government to build this prison far from the population,” explains Arabi.
Political prisoners and minors
However, for some years now, this prison has also received political prisoners, a fact that became evident after the demonstrations on October 20, 2022, violently repressed by the security forces and which caused the death of at least 50 people, close to 300 injured and 621 arrests, according to official figures.
Of those detainees, a total of 401 appeared on charges of “unarmed assembly and rebellion” before the N’Djamena Magistrate Court in hearings held between November 29 and December 2 from Koro Toro, where the defendants were located.
The Chadian Justice sentenced 262 young people to prison sentences of two and three years and 80 to suspended sentences of between 12 and 24 months; 59 were found not guilty and released “for the benefit of the doubt” and 80 minors were released on provisional although “not final” release.
The situation has been denounced by several human rights organizations, such as the Association for the Reintegration of Children and the Defense of Human Rights (ARED).
Its coordinator, Madjirangar Alkoua, exposes to EFE the seriousness of the situation in relation to these 80 minors because their transfer to Koro Toro “does not respect any norm, any law of the Republic.”
“Koro Toro Prison was built for major criminals, but these children were deported there without being proven guilty. These children are traumatized, they told us that on the way from N’Djamena to Koro Toro, in a vehicle, 19 people had died”, adds Alkoua.
Chains, lack of water and food
The released youths claim to have suffered humiliating and degrading treatment during their stay in this prison.
“They kidnapped us and tortured us. They put us in site 1, with what is commonly known as Boko Haram, and we lived like animals,” Baissana Wineknga, one of the young people released, told EFE.
“However, they beat us when necessary. They insulted us and even put chains on our feet. What marked me was the lack of water and food, “says the young man.
According to the testimonies of numerous former detainees, some of them would have died while in detention.
“We spent two days without eating and without drinking water. Some had died of hunger and thirst,” Jean, a young opposition activist who was also released, told EFE.
“Sometimes -concludes Jean- we were forced to drink our own urine to survive. It’s horrible, I’m traumatized.”
