Congo prison escape attempt kills 129 as chaos erupts with stampede and gunfire

 

An attempted escape from Congo’s main prison has left 129 people dead, including some shot and others killed in a stampede at the overcrowded facility, authorities said Tuesday. Activists said the death toll was higher, but did not provide a figure.

A provisional assessment showed that 24 inmates were killed by “warning” shots fired by guards as they tried to escape from Makala central prison in the capital Kinshasa in the early hours of Monday, Congolese Interior Minister Jacquemin Shabani said on the social media platform X.

“There are also 59 injured people being taken care of by the government, as well as some cases of women being raped,” he said, adding that order has now been restored in the prison, part of which was burned in the escape attempt.

He did not provide details about the rape incidents. The prison houses both male and female inmates.

It was not known whether all 129 of the dead were inmates. It was also not immediately clear how the stampede occurred, as details of the escape remained scant.

Makala, Congo’s largest prison with a capacity of 1,500 people, houses more than 12,000 inmates, most of whom are awaiting trial, Amnesty International said in its latest report on the country.

 

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There have been other escapes at the facility, including one in 2017, when members of a religious sect broke into the prison and freed dozens of inmates.

According to local residents, the shooting inside the prison began around midnight on Sunday and continued until Monday morning.

“You could hear gunshots everywhere,” said Stéphane Matondo, who lives nearby, adding that military vehicles arrived shortly afterward and the main road to the prison was blocked.

Videos posted online show bodies lying on the ground inside the prison, many with visible injuries. Another video shows inmates carrying what appear to be lifeless bodies into a vehicle.

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No signs of forced entry were found at the prison, located in the city centre, 5 kilometres (3 miles) from the presidential palace.

The escape attempt was planned from inside the prison by inmates in one of the wings, Mbemba Kabuya, deputy justice minister, told local radio station Top Congo FM.

In the hours after the attack, officials visited the prison as authorities convened a committee to investigate the incident. Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi, who is in China on an official visit, has not made any public statements about the incident.

Calling for an independent investigation, human rights groups and the opposition have accused the government of using excessive force and covering up the true number of casualties. An earlier statement from a senior government official on Monday said only two people had died.

Martin Fayulu, an opposition leader, compared the death toll to “summary executions” and said it was an “unacceptable crime that cannot go unpunished.”

Makala, among other prisons in Congo, is so overcrowded that inmates often starve, activists say. Dozens of prisoners have been released in recent months as part of efforts to reduce the number of inmates.

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Justice Minister Constant Mutamba called the escape attempt a “premeditated act of sabotage” and promised a “stern response.” His deputy, Samuel Mbemba Kabuya, blamed the country’s magistrates and judges for prison overcrowding, saying people were quickly incarcerated at an early stage of their trials.

Mutamba announced a ban on the transfer of prisoners from Makala and promised that authorities would build a new prison, among other initiatives to reduce overcrowding. [AP]

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