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Nigerian authorities searching for more than 500 escapees following prison break

NIGERIAN authorities were still searching for more than 500 escapees on Saturday after a prison break in the south-western state of Oyo the night before.

Gunmen freed more than 800 inmates by blasting the walls of the jail with dynamite — the third such incident in the West African nation this year. 

The prison service said that 575 inmates, who were all awaiting trial, were missing, while 262 escapees had been recaptured. It said that the jail housed only 64 convicts, who had not escaped.

“While all the awaiting-trial detainees were forced out of custody, the cells housing the convicts and the female inmates were not vandalised,” a spokesman said.

A similar jail break took place in Imo state in April, when more than 1,800 inmates were freed, while another 266 prisoners were busted out in an attack in Kogi state last month.

Authorities in Nigeria are struggling to cope with a deteriorating security situation. 

At least 1,000 schoolchildren have been kidnapped since December 2020 as armed gangs have stormed schools in the volatile north-west.

A number of terror attacks have also hit Nigeria and the wider Sahel region as a Boko Haram insurgency continues.

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