More than 120 people have been k!lled in an attempted mass breakout from the largest prison in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the latest in a series of violent attacks on jails in the central African nation.
Prisoners tried to break out en masse from the Makala Central Prison in the capital, Kinshasa, at around 2 a.m. local time (9 p.m. ET) on Monday, Interior Minister Jacquemain Shabani Lukoo Bihango told reporters.
“The provisional human toll stands at 129 dead including 24 by gunshot after warning. The others died by jostling, suffocation and some women were raped,” Bihango said. He added that 59 people were receiving medical care.
One Kinshasa resident, Daddi Soso, told Agence France-Presse that gunfire rang out for several hours during the incident and that he later saw security vehicles removing bodies from the scene.
