DR Congo government says 129 killed in attempted prison break

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00:00A day after an attempted jailbreak in DR Congo and authorities have confirmed that at least 129

00:05people were killed overnight into Monday. Rapes were also reported amongst the violence that

00:10happened at the overcrowded Makala prison in Kinshasa and Mick Livingstone joins us now with more.

00:19Prisoners in Kinshasa's notoriously hellish main jail known informally as Makala attempted

00:24to escape en masse in the early hours of Monday morning but the attempt turned brutally violent

00:29with dozens of inmates ending up killed. Images that circulated on social media

00:34showed dead bodies heaped in the courtyard of the prison. At first Congo's government didn't

00:38communicate the death toll and promised to investigate. Very early on Tuesday morning

00:43however the interior minister gave a preliminary assessment confirming the very worst fears about

00:48the scale of the violence. The provisional death toll stands at 129 dead, 24 of whom were shot

00:57after being warned. The others were killed by stampede or suffocation and some women were

01:03raped. The committee has also identified 59 wounded people for whom the government is currently

01:08providing appropriate care. In terms of property we condemn the fire in the administrative buildings,

01:15the registry, the infirmary and the food stores. The interior ministry also said that the prisoners

01:21had used an angle grinder they stole during a power cut to try to pierce the prison's walls

01:26and it admitted that overcrowding contributed to the massive loss of life. The incident will be

01:31deeply embarrassing to Congo's government and especially its justice minister Constant Moutamba

01:35who promised to tackle Makala's dire conditions just weeks after taking office. Prisons in Congo

01:41are dire at the best of times but Makala has a grim reputation as being nearly unbearable.

01:47Originally built to hold hundreds of prisoners the jail currently holds about 15,000 according

01:52to official figures. Rights activists have documented incidents of inmates starving to

01:57death and even suffocating inside the densely packed cells.

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