Inside 'world's worst prison' where inmates 'forced to eat rotting corpses'
An African prison has been described as "hell on earth" as prisoners detail the horrific conditions they live in, including the smell of rotting flesh.
Inmates at the Rwanda prison Gitarma, which was previously labelled one of the world's deadliest, are allegedly forced to eat corpses of other prisoners in order to survive. Some of the country's most violent criminals, including rapists, robbers and murderers lay inside the crowded walls.
There are even reportedly some fears a few of these people are completely innocent. The site is on the outskirts of Rwanda's capital, Kigali, and was built in 1960 as accommodation for British workers who were in the country. Later on, it was be converted into the prison and designed to hold more than 400 prisoners at a time.
Sewage systems in the prison have broke, meaning inmates have to walk through their own faeces (Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)Reports suggest the gruesome conditions and lack of space have often left inmates with no choice but to stand up as they wrestle for space with around 8,000 inmates - despite the prison's capacity being somewhere between 1,300 and 3,000. During the Rwandan genocide in the mid 1990s, the jail apparently held close to 50,000 in unspeakable conditions as every inch of the walls were used to hold people, the Daily Star reports.
More than 1,000 men are said to have died in Gitarama in 1995 alone. Even today, the stink of faeces and rotting flesh is said to be detectable up to a mile away. It's claimed multiple people can die a day due to the cruel condition at Gitarma jail, with things worsened by reports there is no proper sewer system and convicts are left to walk barefoot through their own faeces.
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Human rights organisations have protested against the deplorable conditions inside the jail over the decades but have failed to succeed in improving conditions. Switzerland-based International Bridges to Justice campaigned to end the savage treatment of detainees inside the prison, with a spokesman saying: "Ordinary men, women and children facing charges can wait in legal purgatory indefinitely, with little if not no access to family, medical assistance, and legal counsel.
The prison was at its most full up during the Rwandan genocide (DDP/AFP via Getty Images)"Some have been imprisoned for 16 years without an expected date of trial. It does not have to be that way. We seek to decongest Gitarama Prison and ensure timely, fair trials for detainees."
Lt-Col Charles Kayonga, commander of Gitarama in the mid-1990s, heartbreakingly admitted it was quite possible that some of the inmates were innocent. He added: ”It's possible some are innocent. I'm not saying our methods were always thorough. But the vast majority of these people are killers.”
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