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Militants free 900 inmates and terrorists from DR Congo prison

According to the acting mayor of the town of Beni, out of more than 1,000 prisoners only 110 refused to leave the jail

Police officers in Beni AP Photo/Al-hadji Kudra Maliro

Police officers in Beni

© AP Photo/Al-hadji Kudra Maliro

PRETORIA, October 20. /TASS/. Over 900 inmates, including dangerous criminals and terrorists, escaped from a prison in the town of Beni in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo on Tuesday, the Actualite news outlet reported.

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"Militants from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) terrorist group attacked the Kangbayi central prison and a military camp located nearby," Beni Acting Mayor Modeste Bakwanamaha said. "The attackers broke into the prison, opened all cells and released the prisoners," he noted, adding that out of more than 1,000 prisoners only 110 refused to leave the jail.

According to public activists, as many as 1,500 inmates, including ADF members, were incarcerated in the prison at the time of the attack. Some of them were soon to be transferred to high-security correctional facilities.

The central prison in Beni regularly comes under attack, the news outlet pointed out, noting that militants from the Mai Mai movement had released 930 inmates and killed 11 people in the summer of 2017.

The Allied Democratic Forces emerged from a Muslim sect in western Uganda in 1995 as an Islamist group opposing the country’s government. The Ugandan army forced ADF units to move to the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2003. According to the UN, ADF militants have killed over 1,000 civilians in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo since the beginning of 2019. Congolese security forces point out that ADF leaders have recently established ties with international terrorist organizations, including the Somalia-based Al-Shabaab Islamist group.

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