Suspected Boko Haram fighters storm Nigeria prison, free hundreds

Abuja, Nigeria – (AFP)

Suspected Boko Haram fighters using guns and explosives blasted their way into a prison near Nigeria’s capital, freeing dozens of their jailed comrades and hundreds of other inmates, the government said on Wednesday.

Tuesday night’s brazen attack on the outskirts of Abuja came just hours after an ambush on a presidential security convoy in the northwest, in a startling illustration of Nigeria’s security challenges.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday briefly visited the prison, where the burnt-out wreckage of a bus and cars marked the scene of the attack, and yellow police tape was stretched across a destroyed section of the prison perimeter.

“I am disappointed with the intelligence system. How can terrorists organize, have weapons, attack a security installation and get away with it?” Buhari said in a statement after the visit.

The Nigerian leader, who has been under pressure over the country’s security challenges, was due to leave on an official trip to Senegal soon after the prison visit.

Close to 600 inmates had been recaptured by Wednesday evening while less than 100 were still on the run, Nigeria’s correctional services spokesman Abubakar Umar said.

Boko Haram is one of the extremist groups involved in Nigeria’s grinding 13-year conflict in the country’s northeast.

Nigerian officials sometimes also use “Boko Haram” as a general phrase to refer to extremists or other armed groups.