The interior minister announced on Tuesday that at least 129 people perished during a weekend jail break attempt at the largest penitentiary in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
According to Jacquemain Shabani’s video message, “the provisional human toll is 129 dead, including 24 who were shot after warnings,” while at least 59 people were injured at the Makala prison in Kinshasa’s capital.
Another report claims that 24 prisoners were shot dead by “warning” gunshots as they attempted to flee the packed Makala Central Prison in Kinshasa early on Monday. Congolese Interior Minister Jacquemin Shabani made this announcement on the social media platform X.
According to Amnesty International’s most recent country report, Makala, the largest prison in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, can house 1,500 inmates and currently houses over 12,000 of them are awaiting trial. The jail has a history of jailbreaks, including one in 2017 that saw the release of dozens of prisoners due to an attack by a religious sect.
According to residents, gunfire inside the prison began on Sunday night at midnight and continued into Monday morning. Rights activists have contested a senior government official’s earlier claim that only two deaths were confirmed during the incident.
Videos that looked like they came from the jail featured bodies on the ground, many of them with obvious wounds. Inmates were seen in another video being carried into a car by people who looked to be dead.
Also Read:
A Visionary Coach And Empowerment Expert: Neetu Choudhary
Technical Team for Social Data Portal Project Approved by SEC
About Author
