Over 1,300 inmates escape from DR Congo prison

YAOUNDE, Cameroon / ANKARA

Over 1,300 prisoners Tuesday escaped after heavily armed assailants attacked a prison in the Democratic Republic of Congo, local media reported.

According to security sources, the heavily armed and unidentified assailants first attacked an army post on the eastern hills of Lao before attacking the Kangbayi Central Prison in Beni, North Kivu Province, at around 4 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Tuesday morning, UN-run Radio Okapi reported.

In a series of tweets, the Kivu Security Tracker (KST), quoting a military source, said Daesh/ISIS claimed the attack via Amaq News Agency.

KST is a joint project of the Congo Research Group and Human Rights Watch that tracks violence by state security forces and armed groups in eastern parts of the central African country.

The deputy mayor of Beni, Modeste Bakwanamah, told a local radio that only a hundred prisoners had remained in their cells, out of the 1,456 counted a day before.

Among those who escaped were rebels from Ugandan rebel group Allied Democratic Forces and Mai-Mai rebels.

Army and police are looking for the escapees hiding out in the wild.