Two guards and five detainees from a prison in the capital of Sierra Leone, Freetown, were killed Wednesday in a riot described by the authorities as an escape attempt, according to a new report released by the police.
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The causes of the mutiny by inmates at Pademba Road prison, who set fire to part of this hundred-year-old establishment, remain unclear. Five detainees and two guards died, said police chief Abu Bakar Kallon. A prison spokesman, Cecil Cole Showers, initially said that a guard had been killed and several dozen of his colleagues and inmates injured during the riot. "This morning we saw that a fire was going on inside the prison and heard the detainees screaming for help," he said.
A local resident told AFP that he heard gunshots. The police sealed off the neighborhood and ordered residents to stay at home. In the evening, the government mentioned in a press release an "attempted escape" and condemned "this attempt to destabilize state security" , without further details, but adding that an investigation had been opened. The riot occurred after the Justice Ministry announced on Monday that one of the detainees had tested positive for the new coronavirus the previous day.
Authorities immediately announced the closure for disinfection of the section through which he passed before being directed to a hospital. The other detainees in this section were moved and placed under medical surveillance, according to the ministry. The Ministry of Justice also suspended the activities of the courts for one month in order to avoid contamination during transfers of prisoners. Sierra Leone, a poor West African country with a very fragile health system, recorded 116 cases of coronavirus, including four deaths. Its prisons are dilapidated and generally overcrowded. Local NGOs recently called on the government to release detainees imprisoned for minor crimes in order to combat the spread of Covid-19.