Last month, gunmen stormed a medium-security prison in Jos, central Nigeria, for the second time this year, managing to free more than 250 inmates.
It was just the latest occurrence in a spate of jailbreaks that has been unravelling in Africa’s most populous country since 2010. More than 7,000 people have escaped from several prisons over that period, with many still remaining at large, according to an Al Jazeera analysis of data from local media reports and escapee numbers provided by officials. The figure amounts to a tenth of the total official number for those currently in custody nationwide, a regularly updated summary of the inmate population published by the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS) shows.
Jailbreak epidemic hits Nigeria’s overcrowded prisons | News | Al Jazeera
