At least 129 people were killed during a weekend prison break attempt at the largest jail in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the interior minister said on Tuesday.
“The provisional human toll is 129 dead, including 24 who were shot after warnings,” minister Jacquemain Shabani said in a video message, adding that at least 59 others had been wounded at the Makala prison in the capital, Kinshasa.
They included “24 who were shot after warnings,” he said.
Shabani added that witnesses heard gunfire at around 2:00 am on Monday and that it lasted for several hours in the area of the prison, a popular and residential neighborhood.
Daddi Soso, an electrician in his 40s, said he had seen security force vehicles taking bodies away in the early hours.
On Monday, police had cordoned off the streets leading to the prison.
The authorities gave no indication as to how many inmates had escaped or attempted to do so, but at mid-morning on Monday, government spokesman Patrick Muyaya told national television the situation was “under control.”
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