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 reporters.
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.
Conditions are so poor that non-governmental groups estimate at
least 100 prisoners are gravely ill and close to death.
Only
6% of the prisoners are actually serving sentences - the rest are stuck in DR
Congo's legal system where cases can drag on for years.
DR
Congo's deputy minister of justice told local media that Makala had now
received some funding to help improve conditions.
"It's
true, there was a delay in paying suppliers and this explains the break in
supplies," Celestin Tunda Ya Kasende told Africa, adding, "the situation was put to rights" on
Monday.
He
promised that more money would follow, but our correspondent in Kinshasa says
human rights organisations remain sceptical.
The
17 deaths in Makala Prison were reported by the Bill Clinton Foundation for
Peace, which has no affiliation to the similarly named Clinton Foundation set
up by the former US president.
Last
year, it was reported that 40 inmates had died in similar circumstances over an
18-month period in another prison in DR Congo. - Africa
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