Some 2,500 prisoners escape after rebels seize another town in Democratic Republic of Congo

BarcelonaSome 2,500 inmates have escaped from a prison in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo city of Bukavu after the March 23 Movement (M23) rebel group seized the town this weekend and set fire to the prison, local authorities and community leaders said. The militants also looted dozens of shops and many residents took advantage of the opportunity to steal whatever they could, in a situation of chaos and widespread panic.

"The rebels are in the city. At the moment, we don't know what to do. It's still risky to go out," said Jean Pierre Mizini, the municipal head of Kadutu, a district of the city, who also said that "sporadic signs" were being felt. According to him, the country's armed forces withdrew from Bukavu as soon as the rebels arrived in order to avoid a bloodbath. A civil society leader, Hypocrate Marume, also confirmed the incident. "Some young people with weapons have been arrested," he added.

Bukavu is a strategic city of one million inhabitants, located in the province of South Kivu, in the east of the country. The M23 rebels occupied the town, although on February 3 they assured that they would not do so. On January 27 they also invaded the city of Goma, with two million inhabitants and headquarters of United Nations agencies and international NGOs. As a result, they now control the capitals of the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, which border Rwanda and are rich in minerals such as gold or coltan, essential in the technology industry and the manufacture of mobile phones. The offensive has caused almost 3,000 deaths, some 2,900 wounded and hundreds of thousands displaced.

The M23 is made up mainly of Tutsis who suffered the Rwandan genocide in 1994. The Congolese government accuses Rwanda of supporting the armed group with the aim of taking control of the country's rich mines. The United Nations also supports the same hypothesis. The M23 resumed its activity in November 2021 with lightning attacks against the Congolese army. Since then, it has advanced to overrun Goma and Bukavu.