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Mass prison escapes during the chaos of fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have captured two of its largest cities over the past two months, have caused panic among the public.
Jailbreaks involving thousands of people at four prisons in the region have accompanied the rapid advance that the militia started in January in its fighting against the Congolese army that also caused widespread chaos and confusion.
“With prisoners escaping, we feel insecure,” said Dufina Tabu Mwenebatende, a human rights activist with the Association des Volontaires du Congo (Association of Congo Volunteers).
As mayhem ensued during the approach and entry of M23 into areas of eastern DRC, security guards assigned to keep prisons secure abandoned their positions, creating opportunities for escape.
More than 4,000 prisoners escaped from Munzenze prison in Goma on the night of 27 January as M23 entered the city, which is the capital of North Kivu province. It later emerged that hundreds of female inmates had been attacked in their wing and raped and burned alive.
More escapes – in Bukavu, Kabare and Kalemie central prison – took place subsequently, with the most recent, at Kalemie, on 19 February.
The inmates had been convicted of crimes including rape, murder, participation in insurrection movements, embezzlement and public order offences.
A Bukavu-based security analyst who requested anonymity said the escaped prisoners may try to settle scores with their victims. “Some people who are detained harbour a mortal grudge against those who arrested them or accused them. When they manage to get out of prison, they go off to seek revenge. This is a danger,” he said.
An escaper from the Goma prison who spoke to the Guardian on the condition of anonymity said disorder at the facility started at midnight and he had to jump out of a window to escape, stepping on corpses as he made his way out.
“Even though the police were killing some of the escapers outside the prison, I told myself that human beings only die once. That’s when I threw myself out of the window and fell out of the back of the prison,” said the escaper, who had been serving a 10-year sentence.
In Goma and Bukavu, people reported seeing escaped inmates committing crimes. Patient Bisimwa, a resident of Bukavu, said: “I saw a group of prisoners with dirty firearms in my avenue. They had even looted an electronics repair shop close to my house.”
He added: “Crime has reached a worrying level in some parts of Bukavu and some escapers are at the root of all this, and that worries us.”
Police stations run by Congo’s national police service in Goma and Bukavu stopped operating after the capture of the cities. Alliance Fleuve Congo (Congo River Alliance), a coalition of militias including M23 that is acting in place of the government in Goma and Bukavu, has promised to build and rehabilitate detention facilities. But with an increase in crime, people are taking the law into their own hands, beating up some suspects and setting others on fire.
At a security meeting on 24 February, Julien Katembo Ndalieni, the rebel coalition-appointed mayor of Goma, criticised the mob action. “We call on the population to put an end to this practice. Today, some people take advantage of the situation to settle personal scores: false accusations are made against innocent people, who are then lynched by the crowd,” he said, calling on people to take alleged thieves to the authorities.
M23’s rapid advance is the worst escalation in years in the decades-long conflict in eastern DRC. It has killed about 7,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands, exacerbating an already catastrophic humanitarian situation in the region.
The group is among more than 100 armed factions fighting against Congolese forces in the mineral-rich eastern DRC. The group says it exists to protect the interests of minorities, including protecting the the Tutsi against Hutu rebel groups who escaped to the DRC after taking part in the 1994 genocide that targeted the Tutsi. The DRC, the UN, the US and other countries say the militia is supported by Rwanda, which UN experts say uses the group to extract and export valuable minerals. Rwanda denies the claims.
