Victoria, Seychelles – The Montagne Posée prison riot inquiry entered its fifth session yesterday with testimony from three more witnesses, each describing scenes of violence, humiliation and systematic abuse that align disturbingly well with accounts already on the record.
Remandee Chinedu Okafra, a South African national, told commissioners he was watching television when he first heard what he assumed were inmates playing football. What followed was sporadic gunfire. When security forces entered, Okafra testified he was severely beaten and humiliated, sustaining multiple injuries across his body. He and other inmates were locked up for several days afterward and repeatedly denied medical care, leaving him with what he described as lasting trauma requiring ongoing counseling.
Okafra also recounted a separate incident from August 24, 2024, during a riot at the Bois de Rose remand centre. He was shot in the left leg during that disturbance and spent four days hospitalized. He claimed he was deliberately targeted and remains traumatized by both events.
Inmates Marcus Renaud and Adrienne Dufrene provided further testimony in the afternoon session, both describing a pattern of violence that began after inmates surrendered. Renaud, from Praslin, said he had just returned from a basketball game when he noticed a commotion between inmates and guards. Gunshots and tear gas followed shortly after.
Despite full surrender, inmates were beaten and humiliated, Renaud testified. He said his request not to be struck on the knees, citing a pre-existing medical condition, backfired when soldiers specifically targeted that area. He was also shot with rubber bullets. He continues to suffer from knee problems, ear issues, and sleep disturbances. He described witnessing inmates being burned by boiling water thrown at them.
Pattern emerging. Dufrene corroborated much of Renaud’s account. He testified that he did not witness inmates restraining a guard, contradicting the narrative used to justify the response. Instead, he said, inmates were frustrated over the placement of Stephen Mondon in a dry cell and lack of access to monthly provisions. He attempted to help a disabled inmate near a burning blockade but was prevented by gunfire from security forces outside. He sustained injuries from beatings, while his friend Joubert was shot in the arm.
What stands out across five sessions now is not merely individual claims but the consistency of those claims. Not one witness has confirmed the alleged kidnapping of guards that was initially cited as justification for the operation. Not one has described inmates wielding weapons. What they have consistently described is the use of live ammunition, grenades, tear gas, systematic beatings, forced nudity, destruction of personal belongings, and targeted assaults.
The question the commission must now address is not whether these accounts are credible, but why they have been so uniform, and what that uniformity says about what actually occurred on December 5, 2024.
