(3 Sep 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo - 2 September 2024
1. State security forces outside Makala prison
2. SOUNDBITE (Lingala) Yvon Kalenga, local resident:
“We were asleep and suddenly we heard gunshots from the prison. We were told that the prisoners had broken through the wall and they escaped. There were many deaths.”
3. Various of state security forces outside Makala prison
4. SOUNDBITE (Lingala) Mabi Kimpwanza, local resident:
“We want the authorities to relocate the prison because it is too close to the population. We even moved our families out of here.”
5. Various of local residents looking on as security forces guard the prison
STORYLINE:
An attempted jailbreak in Congo’s main prison in the capital left at least 129 people dead, most of them in a stampede, authorities said Tuesday.
A provisional assessment showed that 24 inmates were shot dead by “warning” gunshots as they tried to escape from the overcrowded Makala Central Prison in Kinshasa early Monday, Congolese Interior Minister Jacquemin Shabani said on the social 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 has been restored at the prison, part of which was burned in the attack.
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 an attack by a religious sect freed dozens.
Gunfire inside the prison started around midnight on Sunday into Monday morning, residents said. A senior government official earlier said only two deaths were confirmed during the incident, a figure disputed by rights activists.
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