Over 800 inmates have escaped from a prison in eastern DR Congo after gunmen staged a jailbreak in which two policemen were killed, military sources said Wednesday.
"A group of unidentified Mayi-Mayi attacked the central prison of Kakwangura in the town of Butembo. The first toll, still provisional, is that two policemen on guard duty were killed," said Captain Antony Mualushayi, an army spokesman in Beni. One assailant was also killed and ammunition recovered, he added.
The Mai Mai are members of Congolese self-defence groups.
According to a prison source who requested anonymity, of the 872 people held in the prison, only 49 remained.
This "attack caused the death of at least two policemen and the flight of all the detainees", wrote on Twitter the Kivu Security Barometer (KST), an organisation that has observers in the area, specifying that "the ADF is suspected".
Presented by the jihadist organisation Islamic State (EI) as its branch in Central Africa (ISCAP in English), the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) group is accused of being responsible for the massacres of thousands of civilians in eastern Congo and of having committed attacks in Uganda.
The ADF is said to be one of the most deadly groups in the eastern region of the DRC, which has been torn apart by violence for nearly 30 years.
In the DRC, deadly attacks on prisons and prison breaks are often reported.