The Interior Ministry of the Democratic Republic of Congo confirmed that 129 prisoners died and around 60 were injured following an alleged “escape attempt” at the country’s largest prison of Makala.

However, the reality tells another story which is a result of the country’s endemic corruption. 

Sources revealed that the carnage in Makala prison was a planned scheme by top Congolese officials to set free elements linked to the deteriorating security crisis in eastern DRC.

The incident came following the July report by the UN Group of Experts on the DRC noting that Congolese army and intelligence officials, as well as Makala prison authorities have been actively conniving to set free detained members of terrorist groups operating in eastern DRC.

The Ministry’s announcement on September 2, came few hours after Congolese Deputy Minister of Justice Samuel Mbemba reported only two deaths. Civil society sources in the country say the death toll may be even higher than 129.

While Congolese government claimed that most of the victims died from suffocation, only 24 by gunfire, sources from Kinshasa revealed that heavy and light weapon fire rang out for several hours during the night of Sunday to Monday in the grounds of Makala prison.

The government alleged that the incident was “an escape attempt”, where a group of prisoners tried to break down the doors of the prison house and the military police assigned to guard the prison fired at point-blank range to stop “the escape movement” which was already taking shape within the group of buildings of the former central prison.

Makala prison, the main penitentiary establishment in DRC has the capacity of hosting 1,500 people but it accommodates over 15,000 detainees, most of whom are awaiting trial.

Since the resurgence of the M23 rebellion in late 2021, thousands of civilians, army and police personnel, and some militiamen were arrested in eastern DRC, and transferred to Makala prison.

Some Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese, civilians or army personnel, were murdered in Makala prison while waiting for trial over alleged treason allegations.

The prison is known for being a place for torture and murder of individuals accused of “treason” and affiliation with the AFC/M23 rebellion, mainly Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese.

The UN Group of Experts on the DRC noted that while the ADF militia intensified attacks against civilians in DRC, and Uganda, killing the highest number of men, women, and children, the armed group established strong networks in prisons, particularly in Kinshasa where ADF detainees were active in recruiting and mobilizing combatants and collaborators.

“This support to ADF detainees was made possible by the passive, and sometimes active facilitation or complicity of penitentiary and intelligence authorities. In general, in Makala, most detainees could bribe the guards to buy or let in telephones,” noted the report.

The rampant corruption in the Congolese government worsened everything.

Sources in Kinshasa confirmed that the recent carnage in Makala prison was a planned drama to let go some detained militiamen who bribed Congolese officials.

“[But] the plot went wrong as the death toll was not expected to be in hundreds. They [Congolese officials] wanted to let them go as usual, with few gunshots. It seems the scandal went beyond their control,” said Kabuya Firmin, a Congolese political commentator based in DRC’s capital.

Corruption was, on many occasions, reported to be among the reasons making DRC a safe haven for terror groups, which in turn wreak havoc in the east of the country with significant support from Congolese army officials.

The Congolese state has suffered from corruption since independence. Endemic corruption in the country is common knowledge. The government’s lack of political will to investigate alleged wrongdoings and the opacity of financial operations have long enabled corrupt officials to enjoy impunity.

Corruption in the country happens within all state institutions, including the security institutions. During his state visit to Ituri – one of two eastern provinces put under a state of siege since May 2021 with the aim of putting an end to the proliferation of armed groups – in June 2021, Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi deplored the high levels of corruption within the national army.

He admitted that the plague is a major obstacle to the existing security provision and pacification efforts.

“In fact, there are many shenanigans that undermine our security forces. The same mafia has developed in the army as well as in our institutions. It’s not just the army and the police. We saw it, look, in the Senate recently. It’s all this law of omerta,” the Congolese president said, referring to the Senate’s refusal to lift the senatorial immunity of a former prime minister of Joseph Kabila, Senator Matata Ponyo, suspected of embezzling millions of euros.

Congolese army commanders sell arms to armed groups they are supposed to fight, and report ghost numbers of military personnel to increase their monthly earnings.

A 2022 Human Rights Watch report pinned Congolese army, FADRC, on supplying arms and ammunitions to the FDLR, a genocidal militia formed by remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. The FARDC used FDLR and other militia groups to fight M23 rebels.