Makala Central Prison
prison in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Makala Central Prison (French: Prison centrale de Makala), or Makala Prison (French: Prison de Makala, Lingala: Bolóko ya Makala), is the biggest prison in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), located in its capital city, Kinshasa. It is located in the city center, 3 miles (4.8 km) from the presidential palace.
Makala Prison is located between the communes of Makala and Selembao. With a theoretical capacity of 1,500 detainees, Makala is the only detention centre in Kinshasa, with the exception of Ndolo military prison.
The security of each of the eleven pavilions where prisoners are housed is ensured by the inmates. There are no police officers or prison guards inside the site. Instead, prisoners armed with batons guard the entrances and exits of each pavilion.
Capacity
Makala Prison has capacity for 1,500 prisoners, and holds both male and female prisoners. However, Makala Prison is highly overcrowded, housing between 14,000 and 15,000 inmates. According to activists, this leads to inmates often starving to death.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Makala Central Prison” as prison in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2945991. Authority coordinates are -4.362, 15.286. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Makala Central Prison” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.