By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
The latest edition of “The Monitor”, a periodic publication by the campaign group Center for Accountability and Rule of Law (CARL), has highlighted a widespread “unwillingness” in the public for the use of facemask. The report says apathy towards facemask usage is one of the major challenges in the enforcement of COVID-19 regulations.
The publication of The Monitor is part of a six month project that is supported by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa. The first edition of the report was done in May and rights violations by security officers during the enforcement of COVID-19 regulations were heavily featured in that report.
In its latest report, CARL notes that: “there were no major reports and complaints of human rights violations of citizens across the country. However, a major challenge has been the unwillingness of the public to comply with the use of masks in public places.”
The report also states that the unwillingness to comply led to mass arrests and prosecutions in districts like Kenema and Kambia.
The use of facemasks has been contentious, with a huge number of the population still refusing to comply with the directive even though it has been made compulsory in all public places since the 1st of June this year.
“In the months of June and July, 2020, 24 persons were arrested in Kenema, and 18 of them were charged to court for resisting arrest and unleashing insults at police officers,” the report states.
In Kambia seven people were arrested on the 13th of July for failing to use facemasks in public places, according to the report.
The Monitor, in summary, states that social distancing and the refusal to use facemasks constitute the two biggest challenges towards the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
But these were not just the issues highlighted in the report. Despite a drop in reported complaints of human rights violations, there were still reported cases. The report recorded cases of military and police officers using excessive force to enforce COVID-19 regulations.
“We also received reports of Police and military officers getting hyper-active in enforcing the regulations. For example, we found military officers at Jui-junction and the Post Office at Waterloo using canes to beat up persons without masks along the streets and other public places,” it states.
Security forces received scathing criticism for how they carried out the enforcement of COVID-19 guidelines, especially in May when the country went in to a three-day lockdown. A similar pattern of heavy-handedness was reportedly carried out in June and July, even though on a lower scale, according to this report.
Explaining some of the recommendations of the report, Abubakar Kallay, Project Coordinator at CARL said:
“As much as we are telling people to use facemasks and observe social distancing, we are also recommending that officers exercise restraint whiles doing their job and maintain the highest standard of professionalism,” he told Politico.
The report also documented civilians physically and verbally abusing security officers whiles they were enforcing COVID-19 regulations.
At Tambakula Wharf, Aberdeen, for instance, an officer was stabbed by a civilian on the 2nd of July. According to CARL’s report, the officer was trying to interrogate the civilian who was outside at 01:00 in the morning, two hours into the nationwide curfew.
Some 18 of the 24 people that were arrested in Kenema for not using facemasks were also accused of verbally insulting police officers whiles resisting arrest.
The reports also shun a light on the management of quarantine homes. Even though it states that the situation improved in June and July, but there were still common problems across different districts like the shortage of food, water and hygiene accessories for a lot of quarantine homes.
Another common problem was the delay in releasing residents who had finished quarantine. Last month Politico reported a story in Pujehun which involved two women escaping from a quarantine center after spending more than 20 days in quarantine, as a result of delay in their final test results.
There were also two separate incidents in Bo where quarantine residents threatened to walk away if they were not properly taken care of or didn’t get information about their final test results.
Other recommendations in the CARL report also included a new focus on how quarantine homes should be managed and a repeated call for the Human Rights Commission and other relevant stakeholders to investigate cases of rights violation.
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