Female Inmates Are Burned Alive in DR Congo

A grim development in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where scores of female prisoners appear to have been raped and burned alive during a jailbreak in Goma. The BBC reports it viewed an internal UN document that said hundreds of male prisoners broke out of Munzenze prison last Monday and assaulted roughly 165 women while doing so. The deputy head of the UN peacekeeping force based in Goma tells the Guardian that several thousand men were able to escape but the women's wing was set on fire. The inmates' escape came as Rwanda-backed M23 fighters began an ultimately successful effort to wrest control of the city of more than a million; at least 2,000 people have reportedly been killed. More:

• Scope: The Guardian reports "the atrocity appears to be the worst of the recent M23-led conflict" in the region and says UN peacekeepers have been prevented from investigating what happened at the prison by the M23 rebels.
• The ceasefire that wasn't: Though there was cautious optimism after M23 forces announced a ceasefire Monday, suggesting they might end their land grab. But the AP reports the rebels attacked and seized control of Nyabibwe on Wednesday; it sits about 60 miles from Bukavu, the second largest city in the region, and is midway between Bukavu and Goma.

• Some context from the AP: "The M23 rebels are backed by some 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to UN experts. That's far more than in 2012, when they briefly captured Goma then withdrew after international pressure. The M23 are the most potent of the more than 100 armed groups active in Congo's east, which holds vast deposits critical to much of the world's technology."
• Health concerns: Separately, fear is building that a cholera outbreak could now strike Goma, with a rep for Médecins Sans Frontières saying "access to water has been cut for days, corpses have been lying in the streets and waterborne diseases such as cholera are a real threat. Some of our cholera treatment centers are full and have been expanded."

(More Democratic Republic of Congo stories.)