Women serving their jail sentences at Wau Juvenile Prison in the Western Bahr el Ghazal State capital have called for humanitarian support, saying their condition is dire.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj at the prison on Monday, a cross-section of the women inmates, especially the lactating ones, said they face shortages of food, clean drinking water, mosquito nets, and blankets, among other essentials.
“We do not have mosquito nets, blankets, electricity, containers for water, and we only have two bathrooms,” Achol Mading, a prisoner, lamented.
Another inmate, Eliza Barnaba, said the water in the prison is unsafe.
“If there is an organization that can come and help purify water, it could be very good because we drink dirty water inside the prison,” she said. We face a lot of challenges, including diseases, especially skin diseases that spread fast among the women.”
According to Barnaba, lactating mothers also face difficulties in feeding their children due to poor diets and limited food.
“We have mothers in the prison and they do not have breakfast in the morning when they wake up, so they do not have enough milk to breastfeed,” she added.
Another prisoner who identified herself as Julia Sabino echoed Barnaba’s lamentations of poor feeding at the facility.
“The issue of food has become a big problem, and yesterday (Sunday), we only ate okra,” she stated. “If there are people outside there who can help, let them come and support us. We know that we are here because of our faults, but we are just appealing for food assistance. Prison is not our last destination in life.”
Some of the women have spent more than four years in prison and were convicted of crimes including adultery, fighting, and theft.
The Wau Juvenile Prison in Wau Town along the road to the Nazareth suburb and currently houses over 200 women and 150 male juveniles.