About Us

Prisoners Support Cameroon works to protect the health, wellbeing and basic human rights of inmates detained in the country.

Vision:

We strive to ease the isolation and deprivation experienced by prisoners and their families.

Upon release, we prevent their homelessness and destitution and support people to rebuild their lives and have a future free of crime.

Purpose:

To safeguard the welfare and human rights of inmates detained in Cameroon.

To reduce the isolation and deprivation experienced by both prisoners and their families.

To prevent destitution and street homelessness among Cameroonian citizens and give them a second chance to rebuild their lives.

Prisoner’s Support Cameroon  is an independent charity working across the ten regions of Cameroon to provide a better live for prisoners. We are dedicated to supporting people affected by crime and traumatic incidents and we put them at the heart of our organisation. Our support and campaigns are informed and shaped by them and their experiences.

The majority of prisons in Cameroon are old and unsanitary. Buildings are poorly ventilated, and accessing toilets and water is challenging. Poor hygiene conditions and difficulties accessing health care, compounded by overpopulation, lead to health problems. Since 2011, newer facilities have been built and the state has undertaken prison renovation projects.

We provide specialist services to help people cope and recover and to empower them to ensure their voices are heard individually and collectively at a local and national level.

In the north and east of the country, a large number of arrests have taken place in the fight against the armed group Boko Haram. Many arrests have also occurred in connection with the repression of protest movements in the English-speaking region of the country (in French). The adoption of the Anti-Terrorism Act in 2014 has broadened the spectrum of reasons for arrest and detention. Cases of arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment are denounced. Many people are arrested without evidence in the name of fighting Boko Haram, including children as young as five years old. These prisoners are held in military camps without trial for several months.