Armed group storms prison and frees 240 inmates in Nigeria

In Nigeria, heavily armed men stormed a prison in the middle belt state of Kogi on Sunday night and freed 240 prisoners. A spokesperson for the Prison Service reports this. In the meantime, dozens of students held hostage were also released in the northwest of the country on Sunday. And on Monday, it was also announced that twelve soldiers were also killed in the northwest in an attack on a military base on Saturday.

Armed gangs have plagued central and northwestern Nigeria for years. “Kabba prison was attacked by armed men who could not yet be identified,” said Francis Enobore, spokesman for the Nigerian Prison Service. The prison held about 300 men, most of them awaiting trial.

Meanwhile, an armed group that had abducted some 70 students and their teachers from a school in Kaya in northwestern Zamfara state in early September has let the hostages go, a spokesman for regional authorities says.

Kidnappings are almost a daily occurrence in northwestern Nigeria.

Still, in Zamfara, armed men attacked the Mutuji military base on Saturday, killing 12 soldiers. They ran off with a load of weapons and set fire to buildings.

This happened in the middle of an operation by the army to track down gangster gangs in Zamfara. Hundreds of soldiers have been deployed for this purpose for days.