Activist calls for release of prisoners amid coronavirus fears

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An activist in Yei River County has appealed to authorities to release inmates as a preventive measure against the spread of the new coronavirus in the country.

An activist in Yei River County has appealed to authorities to release inmates as a preventive measure against the spread of the new coronavirus in the country.

Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Monday, Justoson Victor, the executive director for YAMORA, a local non-governmental organization, expressed concerns that no preventive or preparatory measures taking place in police and prison units across the country.

“We need to understand and take measures on the people taking care of prisons and the prisoners themselves. Relatives of prisoners who visit and deliver food to prisons can spread COVID-19 to prisons. We need preventive measures in place and the inmates with minor cases could go home,” he explained.

For his part, Major Gen. Yoasa Lujang Kamba, the police commissioner for the defunct Yei River State, said efforts are underway to decongest prisons and move inmates to spacious wards.

“We will not release these people because some of them committed murder, but we will keep them in safe places by ensuring that if 50 of them are sleeping in a single ward, they are reduced to 20,” he said.

South Sudan has reported four cases of COVID-19 so far.