A United Nations investigation has revealed a horrifying scale of sexual violence during one of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s largest prison breaks, which also resulted in 139 deaths. Reuters reports that the probe found that 269 women were subjected to sexual abuse during the chaotic incident at Kinshasa’s Makala Central Prison.
According to an internal UN report reviewed by Reuters, 268 out of 348 female inmates at Makala were victims of sexual violence, including rape, as chaos engulfed the facility. Shockingly, 17 of these victims were under the age of 19. The scale of the abuse became apparent as each survivor required post-attack kits and emergency contraception within 72 hours of the assault.
The attempted mass escape occurred in the early hours of September 2, 2024, at the severely overcrowded Makala prison. While the facility has an official capacity of 1,500 prisoners, it was housing over 15,000 people at the time of the incident. As inmates attempted to break free, prison guards responded with live fire, resulting in at least 129 fatalities.
Survivors’ accounts paint a harrowing picture of the events. One victim, speaking anonymously to Reuters for fear of reprisals, reported being raped by at least a dozen inmates. Another witness described the horrifying scene: “I saw the male prisoners throwing themselves at the female prisoners, it was horrible. Even elderly women were attacked.”
The attack focused on one of the seven blocks vandalized during the breakout attempt, which housed most of the female prisoners. Emmanuel Cole, a Congolese rights defender who has been monitoring prisons since 1997, told Reuters that this “the worst case we have seen in terms of the number of rapes during an escape.” Cole suggested that the UN figures might even be an underestimate, as some victims may be too afraid to come forward.
In response to the catastrophic incident, President Felix Tshisekedi has ordered an investigation into the Makala prison break and called for a review of the country’s main prisons to address the critical issue of overcrowding. Despite the chaos, no successful escapes were reported.
This shocking revelation highlights the urgent need for prison reform and improved security measures in the DRC’s penal system, as well as the imperative to protect vulnerable inmates, particularly women, from such egregious human rights violations.
