BUKAVU: Fifty prisoners including convicted murderers and rapists have escaped from a prison in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo after a fire, a local administrator said on Friday.

Fifty prisoners including convicted murderers and rapists have escaped from a prison in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo after a fire, …
The inmates broke out of jail at Kamituga, 170km southwest of Bukavu, the capital of the strife-prone South Kivu province, “taking advantage of a fire,” Desire Kubuya Masumbuko said.

Kamituga is the gold-rich economic capital of the Mwenga territory overseen by Kubuya, where security forces have trouble dealing with several armed groups.

Just one prisoner remained in the jail after the others took to their heels late on Wednesday and by Friday morning, none of them had been recaptured, Kubuya said.

Those on the run include “20 convicted men, two for murder and 18 for rape,” Kubuya added, expressing fears that the jailbreak would lead to “a settling of scores.”

Rape and killings are endemic to the eastern Kivu provinces of the DRC, which have been wracked by warfare, ethnic strife, armed conflicts over land and control of mineral resources for more than 20 years.

Congolese authorities say that North and South Kivu are the two provinces in the vast central African nation most seriously affected by “sexual violence related to conflict.”

Mass jailbreaks occur frequently in the DRC for lack of sufficient funds for the penal administration and the dilapidated state of old prisons in the former Belgian colony.

National and global human rights organisations regularly criticise detention conditions in these institutions.