Hundreds of women raped and burned to death after Goma prison set on fire
Source: The Guardian
Hundreds of women raped and burned to death after Goma prison set on fire
Atrocity follows escape of thousands of male inmates amid chaos as Rwandan-backed M23 rebels seize eastern DRC city
Joost Bastmeijer, Saskia Houttuin and Mark Townsend
Wed 5 Feb 2025 08.00 GMT
Last modified on Wed 5 Feb 2025 17.21 GMT
Hundreds of women were raped and burned alive during the chaos after a Rwandan-backed rebel group entered the Congolese city of Goma last week.
The female inmates were attacked in their wing inside Goma’s Munzenze prison during a mass jailbreak, according to a senior UN official.
The deputy head of the UN peacekeeping force based in Goma, Vivian van de Perre, said that while several thousand men managed to escape from the prison, the area reserved for women was set on fire.
Images taken shortly after Rwandan-backed M23 rebels reached the centre of Goma reveal vast plumes of black smoke rising from the prison on the morning of 27 January.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/05/democratic-republic-congo-goma-women-raped-burned-death-prison-m23-rebels-rwanda