Forty-five of the fifty-three inmates at Armenia’s Vanadzor Correctional Facility who went on hunger strike on February 27 to demand better conditions have ceased their protest.

Detainees complained about the lack of necessary equipment in the cells, the poor ventilation system, the lack of prescribed medications, the lack of decent drinking water, among other things.

Armenia’s Penitentiary Service, a division of the Ministry of Justice, recently conducted a search of the Vanadzor institution and claimed to have found drugs, mobile phones, alcohol and other prohibited items.