The jail is severely overcrowded, with five times the number of prisoners it was originally built for
Photo: AFP
At least 17 prisoners have died over the past week in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s biggest prison, a charity says.
Aid workers say the deaths were caused by a lack of food and medicine, as well as poor hygiene.
Makala Prison in the capital, Kinshasa, has received no food supplies in the last two months, state officials say.
“It’s terrible! People are dying almost every day,” a prison official who did not want to be named told the BBC.
Food shortages mean the more than 8,000 prisoners who live there rely on their families to bring in meals.
The facility is also severely overcrowded, with more than five times the number of inmates it was built for.
