An attempted jailbreak from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s largest prison has left at least 129 people dead and led to women being raped, the interior minister said on Tuesday.

The circumstances around the bid to bust out of the Makala prison in the capital Kinshasa, which holds 10 times the number it is meant to house, in the early hours of Monday remain unclear.

On Monday, witnesses told AFP they had heard gunfire at around 2am which lasted for several hours in the area of the prison, a popular and residential neighbourhood.

Democratic Republic of Congo Interior Minister Jacquemain Shabani in a statement released by video on Tuesday announced a provisional death toll of 129 people.

They included “24 who were shot after warnings”, he said.

At least 59 others had been wounded and were receiving care, he said, adding that many people had been crushed or suffocated and that many women had been raped.

In the early hours of Tuesday, gunshots rang out again in the neighbourhood, several witnesses said.

“I heard the gunshots around 5am,” Sacre, a taxi driver who did not want to give his surname, told AFP.

He also said that the streets in the area were unusually calm with police and soldiers on patrol, AFP journalists saw.

Daddi Soso, an electrician in his forties, said he had seen security force vehicles taking bodies away in the early hours of Monday. Police cordoned off the streets leading to the prison.

Situation ‘under control’

The authorities have given no indication as to how many inmates escaped or attempted to do so.

On Monday morning, government spokesman Patrick Muyaya only said that the security services were at the scene and asked residents not to panic.

A few hours later, he told national television the situation was “under control”.

Justice Minister Constant Mutamba later announced on X that inquiries were under way “to identify and severely punish the sponsors of these acts of sabotage”.

As well as the human toll, the escape attempt caused damage to buildings. Part of the prison, mainly housing the administrative offices, was set on fire, the government said.

The prison was already badly damaged during an attack by armed men in 2017, which led to more than 4,000 prisoners escaping, some of them described as “dangerous” by police.

Makala prison has a capacity of 1,500 inmates. But it is overcrowded and rights organisations regularly complain about the conditions of detention at the jail.

It holds between 14,000 and 15,000 prisoners, according to official statistics.

“The conditions are deplorable,” Emmanuel Cole, a defender of prisoners’ rights who regularly visits the prisons, told AFP.

Cole warned of a possible “revolt” in the prison and said the situation in Makala could “degenerate” after authorities banned visits following the escape attempt.

“Let us be enlightened on what really happened to lead to this carnage,” Rostin Manketa, director of the local NGO Voice of the Voiceless, told AFP.

“We strongly denounce this massacre,” citizen movement Lucha said on X, demanding an independent investigation.