KINSHASA: An attempted jailbreak in Congo’s main prison left 129 people dead, including some who were shot by guards and soldiers and others who died in a stampede at the overcrowded facility, authorities said Tuesday. One prominent activist put the death toll at more than 200.
A provisional assessment showed that 24 inmates were fatally shot by “warning” shots fired by guards as they tried to escape from the Makala Central Prison in the capital Kinshasa early on Monday, Congolese Interior Minister Jacquemin Shabani said on the social media platform X.
“There are also 59 injured people taken into care by the government, as well as some cases of women raped,” he said, adding that order had been restored at the prison, part of which was burned in the attempted jailbreak.
Shabani did not elaborate on the incidents of rape in the prison, which has both male and female inmates, as well as military personnel facing charges.
It wasn’t immediately clear if all 129 fatalities were inmates and officials did not say how the stampede happened.
However, Emmanuel Adu Cole, a prominent prison rights activist in Congo, told The Associated Press that he counted more than 200 people dead in the attack and many of them had been shot. He cited videos shared from the prison as well as inmates he spoke to. The AP was unable to independently verify the videos.
Inmates had increasingly grown frustrated with the poor conditions in the facility, including inadequate beds, poor feeding and poor sanitation. However, authorities failed to act despite warnings, said Cole, president of the local Bill Clinton Peace Foundation, which has in the past visited the prison.
Makala, Congo’s largest penitentiary with a capacity for 1,500 people, holds over 12,000 inmates, most of whom are awaiting trial, Amnesty International said in its latest country report.
The facility has recorded previous jailbreaks, including in 2017 when members of a religious sect stormed the prison and freed dozens of inmates.
Stanis Bujakera Tshiamala, a prominent Congolese journalist who was recently detained in the prison for months, spoke of its “deplorable and inhumane” conditions and how inmates constantly lack food, water and medical care. Among the inmates are nearly 700 women and hundreds of minors “treated in the same way as adults,” he said.
“Makala is a real chaos (and) every day is a battle for life,” Tshiamala said.
Gunfire inside the prison started around midnight on Sunday and lasted into Monday morning, local residents in the area said.
“Shots were ringing out everywhere,” said Stéphane Matondo, who lives nearby, adding that military vehicles arrived shortly after and the main road to the prison was blocked.
Videos posted online show bodies lying on the ground inside the prison, many of them with visible injuries. Another video shows inmates carrying bodies that appeared to be lifeless and loading them into a vehicle.
There were no signs of forced entry into the prison, which is located in the city center, 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the presidential palace.
The attempted escape was plotted from inside the prison by inmates in one of the wings, Mbemba Kabuya, the deputy justice minister, told the local Top Congo FM radio.
In the hours following the attack, officials visited the prison as authorities convened a panel to investigate the incident. Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi, who is in China on an official visit, has not publicly commented.
Calling for an independent investigation, rights groups and the opposition accused the government of using excessive force and covering up the true death toll. An earlier statement from a senior government official on Monday said that only two people 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 to death, activists say. Scores of prisoners have been released in recent months as part of efforts to reduce the number of inmates.
Justice Minister Constant Mutamba called the attempted jailbreak a “premeditated act of sabotage” and promised a “stern response.” His deputy, Samuel Mbemba Kabuya, blamed the country’s magistrates and judges for the overcrowding in prisons, saying people are quickly jailed at the early stage of their trials.
Mutamba announced a ban on the transfer of inmates from Makala and pledged that authorities will build a new prison, among other efforts to reduce overcrowding.