At least 129 people have been killed in an attempted jailbreak at the Democratic Republic of Congo’s main prison, largely due to a stampede, authorities said.
In a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, early on Tuesday, Interior Minister Shabani Lukoo said 24 inmates were shot dead by “warning” shots as they tried to leave the overcrowded Makala prison in the capital city of Kinshasa early Monday.
Apart from the gunshots and stampede, a fire also broke out in the jail’s administrative building, food depots, and hospital. Fifty-nine people were wounded in the chaos, he said.
“The mass escape attempt at Makala Central Prison resulted in the loss of life and significant material damage,” Shabani said in the video statement, adding that the situation was now under control.
Earlier, a prison official had said that no inmates had managed to escape. Those who tried had been killed.
The prison, which has a capacity for merely 1,500 inmates, holds over 12,000 people, according to an Amnesty International report. Most of them are awaiting trial.
There have been previous incidents of jailbreaks from the Makala prison. In 2017, a religious sect attacked the prison and freed dozens. The government said it is investigating the latest incident.
