Uganda’s Daily Monitor says “an estimated 34,000 prisoners countrywide may starve to death this financial year” if the government fails to mobilise just over US$9 million to feed them. It says food and health care are seriously under-funded.
In a recent analysis of prisons in Africa (AFRICA: Prison reform faces serious challenges), Oxford Analytica said Africa's prisons have been largely ignored by both foreign donors and African governments. Few NGOs prioritise prison reform, reportedly because it is difficult to justify aid for prisoners to taxpayers and donors.
The Kampala Declaration on Prison Conditions in Africa, signed in 1996 by 40 African governments, said most African prisons were overcrowded; they were often a breeding ground for disease, including HIV/AIDS and TB, and in many countries prisoners depended on family and charities to provide basics such as food.
Oxford Analytica says Africa's prisons are a crucial component of the law and order infrastructure and are consistently failing both inmates and the wider population.
am/cb
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions