16 June 2011 – A medical team from the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Sudan (UNMIS) has provided treatment to more than 140 inmates and prison staff in the main prison in Malakal, the capital of Southern Sudan’s state of Upper Nile, during a one-day medical camp in the facility this week.
“The treatment provided by UNMIS… is the first of its kind,” said Othow Omot Okec, the Deputy Director of the Malakal National Prison. “They managed to check and treat prisoners, death-row inmates, women, and insane persons,” he added.
Mr. Omot said that UNMIS human rights officers had also toured the facility on Tuesday to assess the prison’s state and had identified health care as a priority.
“The financial resources [of] the prison [are inadequate] to provide treatment for this big number [of people],” he added.
UNMIS human rights officer Sonny Onyegbula said: “Based on our direct contact with the inmates we observed that most of them (prisoners) look malnourished [and] others complained of all kinds of pains and access to proper basic medication was lacking.”
Currently, medical assistants provide first aid to inmates, while those in need of specialized medical care are transferred to Malakal Teaching Hospital.
Mary Okumu, the Corrections Coordinator of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) last month stressed the need for upholding minimum standards in prisons.
“To be sent to prison must not be the same as being sentenced to death,” she told a news conference at UN Headquarters.
“Peacekeeping prison work is aimed at supporting national authorities to develop and manage safe, secure and humane prison systems. Prisons are a crucial part of the criminal justice chain and as such they must be addressed. They are often neglected and overlooked,” she added.
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