Seven detainees escape jail in Bunia

Seven prisoners have escaped from a police cell in Bunia, the main town in the troubled northeastern district of Ituri, Democratic Republic of the Congo, a local official said on Wednesday. The official, Emmanuel Leku, is the coordinator of the Ituri Interim Commission that runs the district that has been beset by war for the past five years. He said the prisoners fled as the police station chief opened a cell to let out a prisoner. There were 29 prisoners in the jail at the time of the incident on Friday. The spokesman for the UN mission in Ituri, Leo Salmeron, said two of the escapees were due to appear in court on Tuesday. "One of them is accused of the rape of a 13-year-old girl, the other is wanted for killing someone in a fight," he said. The escape comes as the judiciary is being re-established in Ituri, with the help of MONUC. The first magistrates sent from Kinshasa, the nation's capital, arrived in Bunia three weeks ago. Since 1999, fighting among armed groups has caused the death of some 50,000 people and the displacement of 500,000 others in the district. Sporadic fighting continues in Ituri despite the installation of a transitional government of national unity on 30 June 2003.