The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment sets a minimum standard of four square metres per prisoner in a multiple-occupancy cell. The cells at Mizan Teferi held more than 20 people per four square metres.
Tesfaye was desperately ill in jail for two weeks, a fellow prisoner said. When staff finally took him — feverish and unconscious — to Mizan Tepi University Teaching Hospital, he could not be saved from the malaria and meningitis that sickened him, said Dr Gizaw Wodajo, the hospital's medical director.
Hagos Belay, a bank security guard, was admitted to hospital on Dec. 25. Two weeks later, he died of malaria and meningitis — diseases that can be treated with drugs if caught early. Prisoners said there were no medicines for many sick inmates. Gizaw said local officials and the International Committee of the Red Cross did eventually find money to pay for treatment for some prisoners. The Red Cross declined to comment, saying their global access to prisoners depends on their confidentiality.
The doctor said he treated three other prisoners from Mizan Teferi for the same disease. All three told the doctor the only way to get hold of medicines in the jail was by paying for them. A former detainee at Wachemo University told Reuters the facility had enough food and water, and people could move around freely. But prisoners had to buy their own medicines, often pooling money to do so.
Jean Bosco Ngomoni from the UN refugee agency's Semera office, told Reuters that “limited service provision coupled with overpopulation do not allow decent living conditions.” A priest at nearby Afar Semera St. John's church said he had participated in burials of seven or eight people from the camp. Reuters could not determine if those deaths were included in the list.
Beatings from guards were frequent, this man said. When his cellmates thought guards might come, they piled on any extra clothes to try to cushion the blows.