Over 100 die in attempted escape from Congo prison

At least 129 people died Monday during the attempted prison break from Makala Central Prison in the capital of Kinshasa, said Democratic Republic of Congo Interior Minister Jacquemain Shabani. Authorities shot and killed 24 inmates while dozens of others died in the stampede. In addition to those killed, 59 were injured, he said. He did not say whether all those killed were inmates. Fires destroyed the prison’s administrative buildings, registry, infirmary, and food depots, Shabani wrote on social media. Deputy Justice Minister Mbemba Kabuya told Top Congo FM radio that inmates in one of the prison wings plotted the escape and there was no forced entry into the facility.

Have there been any similar escape attempts? In 2020, a rebel group linked to the Islamic State group organized a jailbreak that freed nearly 1,000 inmates from a prison in the northern city of Beni. More than 50 inmates escaped from the Makala Prison in 2017 after members of a religious sect stormed the facility to free their leader. According to Amnesty International, numerous detention centers in the country are severely overcrowded. In a 2023 report, the organization found that Makala Prison had the capacity for 1,500 people but held more than 12,000. 

Dig deeper: Listen to Onize Ohikere’s report on The World and Everything in It about Americans on trial in the DRC.