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Security forces in Nigeria
Photo: Afolabi Sotunde / REUTERS
Heavily armed attackers freed 240 prisoners from prison in Nigeria, West Africa.
A spokesman for the prison administration announced on Monday that the numerous attackers had a "violent firefight" with the prison officers of the institution in Kabba in the central Nigerian state of Kogi.
Meanwhile, dozens of kidnapped students have been released in the north-west of the country.
At the time of the attack, there were reportedly 294 inmates in the prison.
Only 54 of the inmates could not have escaped.
Two law enforcement officers were killed in the attack, prison spokesman Francis Enobore said.
Authorities are looking for the escaped prisoners, it said.
It is unclear who the attackers were.
However, criminal gangs have been active in central and northwestern Nigeria for years.
Regular raids on prisons
Major prison breakouts are not uncommon in the West African country.
In October, gunmen liberated around 1,900 prisoners from two prisons in the southern state of Edo.
Criminal networks and terrorist groups whose supporters are in detention centers are behind the attacks.
The Nigerian security forces are considered to be overburdened, as they are fighting, among other things, a twelve-year jihadist uprising in the northeast and separatist movements in the southeast.
In the northwestern state of Zamfara, dozens of kidnapped students were released earlier this month on Sunday.
"A total of 75 hostages kidnapped from Government Junior Secondary School Kaya were released on Sunday evening," said a local government official.
According to the security authorities, the kidnappers released them in return for safe passage after the army surrounded the criminals' camp.
mrc / dpa / AFP
