Walls broken through
By RTL News 3 minutes ago Modified: 0 minutes ago
© AFP / Audu Marte
RTL
At least 274 prisoners escaped from a Nigerian prison yesterday, the Nigerian Correctional Service reported. The mass escape was made possible by severe flooding that has been affecting the region for weeks.
“The flooding has brought down the walls of the prisons and staff quarters in the city,” said Abubakar Umar, spokesman for the prison in Borno, which is located in the northeast of the country and is the area worst hit by the floods.
According to Umar, 281 prisoners escaped while being transferred to “a safe and secure facility,” with seven of them later recaptured.
The search for the (still) escaped prisoners continues. The identities of the wanted persons have been made known.
Floods
CNN reports that the weeks of flooding in Nigeria have left 229 dead and more than 386,000 displaced, according to the disaster management agency NEMA.
Last Wednesday, a zoo was also flooded when a dam in Northern Nigeria overflowed, sweeping crocodiles and snakes through nearby neighborhoods.
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