An Unfortunate Record for Congo: Thousands Flee Cells in Biggest Jailbreak<br />By KIMIKO de FREYTAS-TAMURA and STEVE WEMBIMAY 19, 2017<br />NAIROBI, Kenya — Long plagued by corruption and inept government, people in the Democratic Republic of Congo were confronting<br />a new problem on Friday: thousands of prisoners on the lam, including hard-core felons and possibly war criminals.<br />African Association said that This breakout demands a reform of Congo’s prison system, which is marked by huge corruption, unlawful detention of people, court delays<br />and the nonrespect of the fundamental rights of those detained,<br />On Friday, Congolese authorities detained 200 people,<br />but rights groups condemned the arrests, saying the police were apprehending innocent civilians and pretending they were escapees.<br />More than 80 people were killed during the escape, 20 vehicles were burned<br />and a prison office was set ablaze, according to the African Association for the Defense of Human Rights.<br />Ne Muanda Nsemi, the leader of Bundu Dia Kongo, which aims to restore the ancient Kingdom of<br />Kongo around the source of Congo River, fled in the mayhem with the help of his supporters.<br />In what appears to have been the biggest prison break ever in the African country, nearly 4,200 inmates were<br />missing from its most notorious penitentiary, the maximum-security Makala prison in Kinshasa, the capital.
