Nearly 1,000 prisoners escape DR Congo jail after attack

Nearly 1,000 prisoners escape DR Congo jail after attack

2011-09-08 04:16:06 GMT+7 (ICT)

KINSHASA (BNO NEWS) -- Nearly 1,000 prisoners escaped a jail in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday after gunmen attacked it, officials said. It is one of the largest jailbreaks ever.

Information Minister Dkianga Kazadi in the southeastern state of Katanga said that the gunmen entered the prison in the city of Lubumbashi in an attempt to free a militia leader, the BBC reported. Two people were reported killed during the attack.

Kazadi said police had recaptured 152 of the 967 prisoners who escaped.

The United Nations spokesman in DR Congo, Madnodje Mounoubai, told the BBC that a former commander of the Mai Mai militia movement, Gedeon Kyungu Mutanga, had escaped. Mutanga was sentenced to death in 2009 for his role in the long-running conflict in eastern DR Congo.

Escapes and mutinies are common in DR Congo's prisons as rival militias battle for power, but they are usually not as big as the one on Wednesday. Nearly 200 prisoners escaped from a jail in 2010.

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