More than 260 female detainees were sexually abused during an attempted mass escape from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Makala Central Prison this month, according to an internal UN report reviewed by Reuters.
At least 129 people were killed when prison guards opened fire on detainees attempting to break out from the Kinshasa jail, which government data say has a capacity of 1,500 prisoners but houses more than 15,000.
The authorities stated following the attempted breakout in the early hours of September 2 that women had been sexually abused but did not provide a statistic.
However, an internal U.N. assessment seen by Reuters on the incident stated that 268 of the 348 women held at Makala were subjected to sexual assault, including rape, while the turmoil unfolded. Seventeen of these were under the age of 19.
The report included specific information about the victims, as each required post-attack kits and emergency contraception within 72 hours.
A government official did not immediately reply to calls for comment on Thursday.
One woman, who did not want to be identified for fear of retaliation, told Reuters by phone that at least a dozen convicts had raped her. “I saw the male prisoners throwing themselves at the female prisoners, it was horrible,” said another female prisoner who observed the incident, adding that elderly women had also been attacked.
She also wants to remain nameless due to safety concerns.
They said that prisoners stormed the block where the majority of the women were held, which was one of seven of the prison’s 11 blocks vandalized during the breakout attempt. “This is the worst case we have seen in terms of the number of rapes during an escape,” said Congolese rights campaigner Emmanuel Cole, who has been monitoring prisons since 1997.
He claimed the U.N. estimates were likely to be underestimated since some of the victims were too terrified of the consequences to speak up.
President Felix Tshisekedi has ordered a probe into the Makala prison break, as well as an assessment of the main jails to address overcrowding. No escapes were recorded throughout the incident.