According to a UN human rights official, over 100 inmates have lost their lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s severely underfunded and excessively overcrowded prisons this year. Contagious diseases like tuberculosis, aggravated by the lack of medical care, along with insufficient food, are cited as the main causes of these deaths.
Patrice Vahard, director of the UN’s Joint Humans Rights Office, confirmed 104 deaths in detention since the beginning of 2024, a stark comparison to the 222 prison deaths reported in 2023.
The majority of these fatalities occurred in the eastern provinces of North Kivu and Tanganyika, as well as in the western province of Kwilu, where families are often unable to provide food for their incarcerated relatives due to the distance from the prisons.
Vahard highlighted the dire situation of Congo’s prisons, describing them as some of the most overcrowded globally and suffering from chronic underfunding. For instance, in a prison in Kwilu, a cell built for 50 people accommodated over 200 inmates.
Acknowledging the problem, Congo’s Human Rights Minister Albert Puela stated that the government is taking steps to address it, including improving conditions within the prisons and expediting the release of inmates in pre-trial detention, which often surpasses legal limits due to judicial delays.
Recently, approximately 70 pre-trial detainees were released from Kinshasa’s main prison as part of these efforts.
