In 2021, more than 1,800 detainees had escaped after an assault on the explosive of a prison in the south-east of the country, plagued by separatist agitations.
Le Monde with AFP
More than 300 detainees escaped, Tuesday evening, from a prison located in the suburbs of Abuja, capital of Nigeria, after an alleged attack of fighters from the jihadist group Boko Haram, said the government on Wednesday, July 6 .
This attack occurred a few hours after a stretched ambush against a presidential security convoy in the northwest, once again illustrating almost generalized insecurity in the most populous country in Africa with 215 million inhabitants.
Residents of the region reported having heard huge explosions on Tuesday evening and gunshots near the Kuje medium security prison center, in the suburbs of Abuja. “We understand that it is Boko Haram, they came specifically for their cocoonspirators,” a head of the Interior Ministry, Shuaubu Belgore, told the press. “For the moment, we have recovered around 300 (detained) from the approximately 600 who have left prison cells,” he added, adding that some prisoners have surrendered while others have been recapped . A security guard was killed in the attack, said prison services spokesperson Abubakar Umar.
Prison officials are still trying to determine the exact number of detainees missing on the appeal, according to Mr. Umar. In the morning, the security forces brought back to prison, in a black van, about 19 recapped prisoners, noted an AFP correspondent on the spot. The former senior police official, Abba Kyari, detained at the Kuje penitentiary center awaiting his trial for drug trafficking, is still in detention, he added.
“We heard shots on my street. We thought it was armed thieves,” said a local resident. “The first explosion occurred after the gunshots. Then there was a second and a third”.
ambush against a convoy of President Buhari
The security forces of Nigeria fight the jihadists of Boko Haram and those of the Islamic State group in West Africa (Iswap in English) in the northeast of the country, where a conflict of thirteen years made 40 000 dead and 2.2 million displaced.
The army, overwhelmed, is also deployed against heavily armed criminal bands, locally called “the bandits”, which terrorize the northwest and the center, attacking the villages and proceeding to mass kidnappings. The Nigerian government often evokes “Boko Haram” to more generally designate the jihadists and criminal gangs of all kinds.
A few hours before the attack on Kuje prison, armed men also set an ambush to a detachment of security agents from President Muhammadu Buhari – who was not present in the convoy – near his A hometown where he has to go this weekend in the state of Katsina (northwest). Two agents were slightly injured in the attack and identity of the authors remains unknown for the time. “The attackers opened fire on the convoy (…) but were pushed by soldiers, the police and the DSS agents,” said the presidency.
In Nigeria, prisons, often overcrowded and guarded by overwhelmed security forces, are the target of frequent attacks. In 2021, more than 1,800 detainees escaped after heavily armed men attacked an explosive a prison in the south-east of the country, prey to separatist agitations.