Mauritania: prisons are changing, but problems remain

Abass spent nearly three months in the Dar Naim Prison before being transferred to particularly difficult conditions in the Zouerate Prison. Leaving around 4:00 AM, five cars transferring 20 people stopped at a school in the province of Choum at 1:00 PM ─on the road to Zouerate─ to eat.

The detainees had to urinate handcuffed and shackled; the guards in charge of the transfer did not allow them to open their fly and refused to let them take out their handcuffs.

After intense negotiations, they allowed them to wash up, pray and eat free of restrains, before returning to the road.
They arrived at the Zouerate prison around 7:00 PM. Abass spent nearly 40 days there before being transferred to the Bir Moghrein Prison, where he spent two months. He received his first telephone contact with family two weeks after his arrival in Bir Moghrein. In this prison, the major problem is access to medical care. There were no specialist doctors available. Medical problems are treated with tranquillisers.

Abass did not see a doctor upon his admission to the Zouerate Prison from Bir Moghrein Prison. He was finally released in early 2017, and then was escorted back to downtown Bir Moghrein, where he had to fend for himself to go back home. He paid 20,000 Ouguiyas (the equivalent of 60 Euros) to return home to Nouakchott.
Since his release from prison, Abass has lost part of the hearing from his right ear. After his imprisonment, he was arrested again in early 2018, during a protest in Nouakchott. He was brutalised during this event and he had to spend a day in hospital for medical exams. Since his incarceration, he has undergone serious medical problems with his testicles. He cannot afford the medical treatment he needs for lack of financial resources.