Dozens of civilians at the entrance to Beni prison this Tuesday.STRINGER / Reuters
More than 1,300 prisoners have escaped during the early hours of this Tuesday from the Beni prison, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, thanks to an attack carried out by the militants of the Islamist armed group Allied Democratic Forces.
The mayor of the city, Modeste Bakwanamaha, confirmed that the attackers had carried out a large operation in two phases.
First, they attacked the military post near the Kangbayi central jail;
later, another heavily armed group stormed the penitentiary, breaking down the doors and releasing most of the inmates.
According to local radio station Radio Okapi, of the nearly 1,500 incarcerated only 122 remained inside.
The exchange of shots between the police and the militiamen began at four in the morning local time (the same in mainland Spain) and with this escape dozens of militiamen of the Allied Democratic Forces who were serving sentences, as well as combatants, have been released. from other armed groups in the region.
The Forces is a group that was created in Uganda, but has operated in eastern Congo since the late 1990s, when the Ugandan Army expelled them from their territory.
Although they coexist with dozens of other armed groups in that troubled region, since 2014 they are the most active and violent militia in Beni, and currently the most lethal in Congo.
Last year, the Congolese army launched a counterinsurgency operation, which occupied some of its main rebel bases.
But the combatants dispersed into small groups and continued to commit atrocities against citizens.
On August 26, 24 civilians were killed in the towns of Mapsana and Mabuo.
And since the beginning of 2019 they have killed more than 1,000 people.
The Islamic State (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for some of the Forces' attacks since last year, including Tuesday's attack on the prison, according to the Kivu Security Barometer.
The jihadist group would have assumed it through one of the organs of its media arm, the Amaq agency.
But the links between the two organizations are dubious, according to United Nations experts.
The Forces do not have a spokesperson, they have never been clear about the motives for their fight, and they have not formally affiliated with ISIS.
