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Goma Prison Riot Lessons Not Learnt
Fears appalling conditions in DRC jails could lead to repeat of rebellion which
saw female prisoners raped.
By Lucie Bindu - International Justice - ICC
ACR Issue 271,
4 Oct 10

More than a year after an attempted jailbreak during which a number of female in
mates were raped, little has been done to change the dismal conditions in Goma’s n
otorious Munzenze prison.
At the time, the United Nations mission in the country – then called MONUC and sin
ce renamed MONUSCO – appealed to the government to improve jail conditions in orde
r to prevent a repeat of the violence. This call was echoed by other internation
al bodies, including Human Rights Watch and the presidency of the European Union
.
But the dire situation, including serious overcrowding and a lack of adequate se
paration between male and female inmates, appears unchanged, prompting fears tha
t the violence of 2009 could be repeated.
Christine Musaidizi, head of the local NGO Children’s Voice, recently visited the
women’s wing of Goma’s prison, where on June 21, 2009, 20 female inmates were raped
during an attempted jailbreak by male prisoners serving long sentences for serio
us crimes.
“While I was there, one of the prisoners from the men’s section just walked in,” she s
aid. “This was a big well-built man. I was very frightened. If he had tried to do
something to me, there was no way I could have defended myself.”
Musaidizi notes that the wall separating the male and female units of the prison
still does not have barbed wire on top of it.
Munzenze was built in 1953 and has the capacity for 150 inmates. Currently, thou
gh, some 960, including many army deserters, are being held within its walls.
Inmates have to sleep in shifts due to the lack of space, and food comes irregul
arly and in small quantities. The provincial government provides irregular suppl
ies of beans, rice and sometimes salted fish, although never in sufficient quant
ities, so most prisoners only eat one meal a day, late at night.
Regular water shortages aggravate the situation, meaning prisoners can neither d
rink nor wash. Dysentery is another problem.
“There are cases of infection and people suffer a lot,” John Masenge Katamba, a pris
oner, said. “People are going to die here in the jail.”
Elsewhere in the region, the situation is even worse. In Sake, a town close to G
oma, detainees have to share their quarters with goats and sleep on the floor, i
n puddles of urine. There is no organisation that provides assistance and prison
inmates have to rely solely on their relatives’ goodwill in order to eat and drin
k.
“These living conditions violate basic human rights and the dignity of the detaine
es,” a lawyer from Goma, speaking on condition of anonymity, said. “The people in po
wer should take this into account.”
The authorities recognise that prison conditions need to be improved, but say th
at a lack of funds makes this difficult.
“The living conditions are still a concern for us,” Tuhihimbaze Rutchomboza, the pro
vincial minister of justice, said. “We are looking at how to improve the situation
of prisoners [throughout] the province. But we have not been able to do anythin
g because of a lack of funding. The province alone cannot cover all expenses. We
are waiting for support from the central government.”
International NGOs also try to help. For instance, the International Committee o
f the Red Cross, ICRC, supplies some food to DRC prisons, while the Association
of Female Doctors provides medical aid and assists with prison hygiene.
Another problem which remains to be resolved is the long time that it takes for
the case file of a prisoner to be dealt with. This was noted as an additional re
ason for the 2009 violence.
“I was arrested on May 16 for attempted rape,” Isumbiya Eli, one of the prisoners at
Munzenze prison, said. “I have been here over six months and I am still waiting t
o see the judge.”
Rutchomboza accepts that, in many cases, justice takes too long.
“The slowness in the treatment of detainees’ files is due to the insufficient number
of magistrates in the region,” he explained. “Also, some files were destroyed durin
g the volcanic eruption [in 2003].”
He said he was planning a visit to the region’s prisons in order to see how some o
f the detainees might be freed and discuss how to find a solution regarding the
missing files.
There have been some attempts to improve prison security and living conditions s
ince the 2009 riots, but with limited effect.
Shortly after the attempted breakout, the provincial government decided to build
a dedicated women’s prison, just next to the existing Goma jail. But construction
has been hampered by accusations of embezzlement and no one seems to know when
the new facility might be completed.
On August, 19, MONUSCO established a special unit to look at the issue of prison
conditions in the country, and to support the national prison administration.
“Prisoners in the DRC encounter many difficulties because of degrading prison cond
itions,” Youssoupha Ndiaye, acting head of this unit, said. “This is why we have dec
ided to set up this new unit, aimed at improving the living conditions of detain
ees.”
On September 16, MONUSCO said that it had earmarked 13,000 US dollars for a new
detention centre in Bunia, Ituri district, to house up to 50 female inmates.
Elsewhere, in Tshikapa in Western Kasaï province, a new initiative has been starte
d to regularly review the case files of detainees, and consider whether they sho
uld continue to be held. As a result, the number of prisoners has fallen from 50
0 to 150.
In Bandundu province, also in the west of the country, the governor recently dec
ided to build a new prison, which has eased overcrowding and led to a dramatic i
mprovement in living conditions.
People in North Kivu are now wondering when things will be improved in their pro
vince, and whether changes will come before there is a repeat of the 2009 violen
ce.
“Penitentiary conditions are very lamentable,” Zihalirwa Rubanda, a human rights def
ender, said. “If the government does not do something soon, then there will once a
gain be violence.”
Lucie Bindu is an IWPR trainee in Goma. Passy Mubhama, also an IWPR trainee in G
oma, contributed to this report.