More than 100 inmates escaped a Chad prison during a shoot-out that left three people dead, and wounded a state governor visiting the facility, officials told AFP on Saturday.
The break-out occurred late Friday when an uprising happened in the high-security penitentiary five kilometres (three miles) from the town of Mongo, in the centre of the country.
“There are around 100 who escaped, three dead and three wounded,” Hassan Souleymane Adam, secretary general of the Guera province in which Mongo is located, said. A local Mongo official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said prisoners broke into a manager’s office to steal guns. “A shootout with guards ensued, at the same time the governor arrived. He was wounded,” he said.
The Mongo official confirmed there were three dead, and put the total number of escaped prisoners at 132.
He said the prisoners revolted after complaining about a lack of food.
Chad’s Justice Minister Youssouf Tom told AFP by telephone that he was about to fly to region and would be able to give “precise information once I am at Mongo in the coming hours”.
Meanwhile, at least 17 people were killed when suspected cattle herders attacked communities in central Nigeria’s Benue State on Thursday, police said, amid a resurgence of deadly clashes between farmers and herders.
Years of clashes have disrupted food supplies from north-central Nigeria, a significant agricultural area.
The latest attacks came two days after 11 people were killed in the Otukpo area of Benue and barely a week after gunmen attacked villages and killed more than 50 people in neighbouring Plateau State.
Since 2019, the clashes have claimed more than 500 lives in the region and forced 2.2 million to leave their homes, according to research firm SBM Intelligence.
A separate group of suspected herdsmen shot and killed five farmers around Gbagir in Benue’s Ukum Local Government Area, early on Friday, police said. The attackers opened fire as police were moving in to confront them, police spokesperson Sewuese Anene said in a statement.
While officers were engaging the attackers at Ukum, another 12 people were killed in another attack in Logo local council area, about 70 km away, police said.
By Agencies
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