A/HRC/42/32 64. The High Commissioner finds it regrettable that Lieutenant Colonel Mabiala Ngoma Alma is on the run, despite having been sentenced in November 2018 by the South Kivu Military Court to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity, including murder and rape, committed in Kalehe territory in 2013. His flight is all the more worrying in that it was allegedly facilitated by the military high command of the operational sector in Uvira. 65. There are significant challenges to the fight against impunity and the administration of justice, including structural difficulties, such as an insufficient number of judges and insufficient material and financial resources, and the judiciary’s lack of independence. The establishment of 15 new courts of appeal during the reporting period is a first step towards resolving the problem of the courts’ remoteness. 66. On 6 March 2019, an interministerial commission known as the Yumbi Commission was created to take on the task of collecting information on the massacres committed in Yumbi in December 2018, ensuring accountability and bringing the alleged perpetrators to justice. The Commission’s report, which was made public on 23 May 2019, has been transmitted to the Minister of Justice. At the time of writing, criminal investigations were being conducted by the Military Prosecutor’s Office and had led to the arrest and pretrial detention of 25 alleged perpetrators. 67. During the period under review, the implementation of the national policy on judicial reform and its accompanying priority action plan for the period 2018–2022 ran into difficulties related, in particular, to the political backdrop, which was dominated by the electoral process, and to the limited financial resources available. 68. The shortcomings of the prison system remain a major obstacle to the fight against impunity. The Joint Office documented the escape of 1,610 people from detention centres across the country. The most frequent causes of these escapes, in addition to negligence and corruption, are the dilapidated state of the infrastructure, the insufficient number of guards and their lack of training. Moreover, conditions of detention are alarming in most of the country’s institutions, owing, in particular, to inadequate hygiene and a lack of access to health care and adequate food. These conditions and, in some cases, ill-treatment were at the root of 222 deaths in custody during the reporting period. 2. Action taken by the Joint Human Rights Office 69. The Joint Office has continued to support the civilian and military justice systems in their endeavours to end impunity by providing technical, logistical and financial assistance for the investigation and prosecution of violations and serious abuses of human rights. Between June 2018 and May 2019, the Office supported 16 joint investigation missions and 20 mobile court sessions, working alongside the judicial authorities across the country to bring to justice those responsible for serious human rights violations. In Kasai, the technical support team deployed by the Office of the High Commissioner, in accordance with resolution 35/33 of the Human Rights Council, together with the Joint Office, continued to provide technical assistance to the judicial authorities in the conduct of investigations into violations and serious abuses of human rights committed in the region since 2016. During the reporting period, six joint missions were conducted by the Joint Office and the Military Prosecutor’s Office in Kasai and Kasai-Central provinces. 70. In March 2019, in Kasai Central, the Joint Office, in collaboration with other partners, launched a drive to strengthen social cohesion between conflict-affected communities, including through transitional justice initiatives. 71. In cooperation with the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Human Rights, the Joint Office has launched a project to alleviate prison overcrowding that began in July 2018 and led to the identification of cases of irregular and/or illegal detention in Makala prison, Kinshasa, and in the four main prisons in Kongo Central. The project has made it possible to rectify the situation in these cases and to release persons detained illegally. 72. On various occasions, the Joint Office has called on the judicial and political authorities to take urgent action to implement the judicial decision sentencing Lieutenant Colonel Mabiala Ngoma Alma, currently on the run, for crimes against humanity including murder and rape. 12 GE.19-13875