Black Beach located on the island of Bioko

Bioko

Bioko is an island 32 km off the west coast of Africa, specifically Cameroon, in the Gulf of Guinea. It is the northernmost part of Equatorial Guinea with a population of 124,000 and an area of . It is volcanic with its highest peak the Pico Basile at .-Geography:Bioko has a total area of...

, in the capital city of Malabo

Malabo

Malabo is the capital of Equatorial Guinea, located on the northern coast of Bioko Island on the rim of a sunken volcano....

 in Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea where the capital Malabo is situated.Annobón is the southernmost island of Equatorial Guinea and is situated just south of the equator. Bioko island is the northernmost point of Equatorial Guinea. Between the two islands and to the...

, is of one of Africa's most notorious prison

Prison

A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...

s.

Feared reputation

It has a reputation for systematically neglecting and brutalising inmates. Medical treatment is usually denied to inmates and food rations are said to be meagre. (The United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

' Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners

Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners

The Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners were adopted on 30 August 1955 by the United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, held at Geneva, and approved by the Economic and Social Council in resolutions of 31 July 1957 and 13 May 1977.Although...

 requires minimal medical treatment for all prisoners.)

Former governor

The President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo is an Equatoguinean politician who has been President of Equatorial Guinea since 1979. He ousted his uncle, Francisco Macías Nguema, in an August 1979 military coup and has overseen Equatorial Guinea's emergence as an important oil producer, beginning in the 1990s...

, is a former Governor of Black Beach Prison.

Prisoners

Black Beach holds a number of foreign prisoners sentenced for participating in a 2004 failed coup d'etat

Coup d'état

A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...

attempt against the President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema. These included Simon Mann

Simon Mann

Simon Francis Mann is a British mercenary and former British Army officer. He had been serving a 34-year prison sentence in Equatorial Guinea for his role in a failed coup d'état in 2004, before receiving a presidential pardon on humanitarian grounds on 2 November 2009.Mann was extradited from...

, the alleged ringleader, until his presidential pardon on 2 November 2009 on humanitarian grounds.

External links

• Guillermo Nguema Ela, Donato Ondó Ondó and other detainees in Black Beach prison Amnesty International
• Inside Black Beach prison, the 'hell hole' awaiting Dog of War Simon Mann Evening Standard