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Côte d'Ivoire

Capital city — Yamoussoukro

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Panorama
Contributor(s)Observatoire ivoirien des droits de l'homme / Frédéric Le Marcis / Prison Insider

Latest updates

Prisoners are allowed to pass diplomas and entry examinations

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Prisoners have the right to pursue education and take competitive exams.

  • In 2017, a prisoner was granted authorisation to leave the prison to take the BEPC exam, the first level of secondary school exam. However, this is an isolated case.

Abuse of prisoners is most often punishment, blackmail or hazing rituals for newcomers. Abuse can also take the form of beatings and sexual violence. Cases of abusive transfers of detainees, sometimes without the knowledge of judges and lawyers, are reported.

  • The Committee against Torture notes, in April 2015, inadequate and unsatisfactory conditions of detention in prisons and cases of torture and ill-treatment.

Number of deaths in custody

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The total number of people who died in detention in 2016 is not reported. Thirty-five prisoners died in 2016 at the jail in Abidjan jail. Among the causes of death are HIV/AIDS (4 people in prison), high blood pressure (2 people in prison), tuberculosis (1 person in prison), mental disorders (3 people in prison). For 7 people detained, the causes of death are not reported. One third of the deaths are due to malnutrition (9 detainees). Another third of the deaths are the result of “traumas,” according to the medical reports. This raises the possibility that they are caused by violence and mistreatment, though it is not clear if the perpetrators of such acts are prison personnel or prisoners

  • Thirty-five prisoners died in 2016 at the jail in Abidjan. Eleven people died at MACA during a mutiny on 20 February 2016. The victims include one prison guard and ten prisoners, one of them the well-known Yacouba Coulibaly, also known as “Yacou the Chinese“. Jean Kouachi (former Minister of Defense), sergeant-at-arms, who is incarcerated at MACA, dies following an illness contracted during his imprisonment.