UNITED NATIONS, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Human rights officials with the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have expressed serious concerns about the living conditions in the Mbuji Mayi central prison, where at least26 prisoners have died from severe and acute malnutrition since February.

    In the latest incident at the prison, located in Kasai-Oriental province, four prisoners died of hunger last week, bringing the total number of deaths this month to 10.

    Staff from the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, known as (MONUC), visited the prison after being informed of the new fatalities, and found there were more than 20 inmates on the verge of death. The jail, originally designed for 200, now houses 425 prisoners.

    In addition, the four prisoners who died last week were on a list of 30 who required urgent medical care due to serious healthconditions.

    "MONUC expressed deep dissatisfaction to the provincial authorities on the living conditions of the prisoners," MONUC Mbuji Mayi human rights officer Assiongbon Tettekpoe said.

    "Our concern is even greater as we noted that among these deaths, many of them are defendants, who are therefore presumed innocent because they have not been judged due to the slowness of the legal process," he added.

    MONUC was particularly concerned about the lack of specific measures being taken to ensure good conditions in Kasai-Oriental province prisons in the face of the high number of deaths.

    The mission says the Congolese authorities have the primary responsibility to ensure reasonable detention conditions for prisoners in all of the country's prisons.

    To address the problem of malnutrition in the Mbuji Mayi prison, MONUC has suggested instituting a specific food and healthcare budget.

    For the time being, the mission is providing water to the prison on a weekly basis. It also distributed corn for the prisoners twice a week between January and May.