At least 129 prisoners were killed in an attempted jailbreak at the capital’s largest prison in Congo, the majority of them during a stampede, according to police on Tuesday.
According to a preliminary evaluation, 24 prisoners were killed by “warning” bullets while attempting to flee from Kinshasa’s overcrowded Makala Central Prison early on Monday, Congolese Interior Minister Jacquemin Shabani stated on the social media platform X.
He stated that order had been restored at the prison, some of which had been destroyed by fire. “There are also 59 injured people taken into care by the government, as well as some cases of women raped,” he said.
Capacity of the prison
With 1,500 beds, Makala is the largest prison in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, housing approximately 12,000 prisoners, the majority of whom are awaiting trial, Amnesty International said in its latest country report. The facility has recorded previous jailbreaks, including in 2017, when an attack by a religious sect freed dozens.
According to residents, gunfire inside the prison began on Sunday night about midnight and continued until Monday morning. Rights campaigners have contested a senior government official’s prior claim that only two deaths were confirmed during the incident.
Videos that looked like they came from the jail featured bodies on the ground, several of them with obvious wounds. Inmates were shown in another video being carried into a car by people who looked to be dead.
Not a warning
The prison is situated in the city center, five kilometers (3 miles) from the presidential palace, and there were no indications of forcible entry.
Mbemba Kabuya, the deputy minister of justice, informed the local Top Congo FM radio station that prisoners in one of the prison’s wings had planned the attempted escape from within.
In the hours that followed the attack, the road to the prison was cordoned off while authorities convened a panel to investigate the incident.
Activists claim that because Makala and other jails in the Congo are so overcrowded, famine is a common cause of death. This year, a large number of prisoners have been released as part of attempts to clear the jail system.
The incident was described as a “premeditated act of sabotage” by Justice Minister Constant Mutamba, who also threatened to take harsh action against anyone who “instigated these acts of sabotage.”
Along with other measures to ease overcrowding, he said that authorities would construct a new prison and forbade the transfer of prisoners from the jail.
(Africanews)
