Prison conditions
FORCED EVICTIONS
Detention facilities were overcrowded and health risks to inmates were exacerbated by COVID-19. By October, there were 10,804 detainees of which 5,052 were in pre-trial detention. Between March and September, the government released 3,731 prisoners in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The death of two detainees from COVID-19 in Thiès prison led to hunger strikes by inmates calling for mass testing. At least six people died apparently due to poor detention conditions while in police custody and in Thiès and Diourbel prisons.
Rural communities in the Thiès region continued to challenge the threat of forced eviction as agricultural and petrochemical companies encroached on their land. A farming community in the village of Ndingler, near Mbour city, lost 0.75 square kilometers of communal land to an agri-business project. In July, the authorities brokered a truce, allowing farmers limited access to their land. The villagers of Tobène accused a petrochemical company of polluting their farmlands and challenged the government’s decision to allocate an additional 6 hectares of farming land to the company. The residents protested the company’s compensation offer of XOF9 million (US$16,110). In August, demonstrations turned violent and the gendarmerie arrested 22 residents, including the activist Ardo Gningue, who said he was tortured and otherwise ill-treated during detention in Tivaouane.
RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX (LGBTI) PEOPLE LGBTI activists were subjected to smear campaigns and death threats. Under the Criminal Code, same-sex sexual relations were punishable by up to five years’ imprisonment. In October, 25 men and boys were arrested at a private party in Dakar and charged with “unnatural acts” and detained. On 6 November, a court in Dakar sentenced two of the men indicted to six-months and five men to three-months in prison. The rest, including those who were under-age, were acquitted.
CHILDREN’S RIGHTS A draft law to regulate Qur’anic schools awaited parliamentary approval. Twelve Qur’anic students were reportedly tortured and otherwise ill-treated by their teachers. In February, a 13-year-old boy was beaten to death by his teacher in Louga city. In March, the Dakar Criminal Court sentenced a Qur’anic teacher to 10 years’ imprisonment for “assault and battery of an individual under 13”; another staff member was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for failing to assist the victim. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the government said it had taken 2,015 children off the streets, returned 1,424 of them to their families and placed the rest in government centres.
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ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS There was a resurgence of violence in Casamance. In August, Hamidou Diémé, a former combatant of the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance armed group, was killed in Diégoune in the Ziguinchor region, by unidentified gunmen. No one had been brought to justice for the attack by the end of the year.
SERBIA Republic of Serbia Head of state: Aleksandar Vučić Head of government: Ana Brnabjić Serbia failed to indict any former senior police or military commanders for war crimes and resolution of the fate of missing persons stalled. Protesters and journalists were seriously injured in the capital, Belgrade, when police used excessive force. Few refugees gained access to asylum.
Amnesty International Report 2020/21
