According to evidence recently submitted by SWAPO, many Namibian detainees are being held in secret prisons and detention camps located in thick forest areas in the Otavi and Grootfontein district. Many prisoners are believed to be held in dugouts. SWAPO named, in particular, Gertrude KANDANGA (Deputy Secretary of the SWAPO Women's Council detained in January 1980); Jason ANGULA (SWAPO Secretary for Labour detained since December 1979); Eliakim NAMUDJEBO (churchwarden at St Mary's Mission, Odibo, detained since June 1980); and Monika MUNAGOBE, as among those believed to have been held in these secret detention camps.
Kefas SHIPWATA and Rauna NAMBINGA, two witnesses presented by SWAPO to the International Commission of Inquiry in Luanda in February 1981, both described being taken, blindfolded, to detention camps in unidentified forest areas of northern Namibia.
(Gertrude Kandanga is believed to have been released from detention after being held for approximately a year without charge.)
A recent letter in the Windhoek Observer from a reader alleges that "people from the north (of Namibia) also tell of starvation of detainees, particularly at a transit camp at Outapi in Ombalantu".
