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4000 in mass jail break

November 12, 2004

ABIDJAN: At least 4000 of the 5500 inmates at the main prison in Ivory Coast's commercial capital Abidjan took advantage of work on a new security system to escape over the weekend, prison sources said.

Prisoners crawled through sewage tunnels stretching from the facility to the nearby Banco national forest, the sources told AFP, in a jailbreak that came as the city was engulfed in anti-French mob violence.

The escapees were huddled together in the yard at the Abidjan detention and correction facility (MACA) while work to repair locks and bars broken in a mutiny last week was ongoing.

The prison guards only noticed Monday that prisoners were disappearing over the course of the day, slinking their way towards the sewer mouth conveniently located in the prison yard, the sources said.

Fewer than 1000 prisoners remained at MACA on Wednesday, among them 99 women, whose cells stayed firmly locked, they added.


MACA, like most Ivorian prisons, is woefully overcrowded, with 5500 inmates jockeying for space in a facility built to house just 1500 people.

A riot over water broke out in the prison on November 2, leaving four inmates dead and a dozen wounded.

The jailbreak came after the west African nation's shaky ceasefire was broken last week when the Ivory Coast air force bombarded positions in the rebel-held north. Subsequent raids killed nine French peacekeepers and a US aid worker.

The former French colony has been divided since a September 2002 uprising by rebels trying to unseat President Laurent Gbagbo. Both sides have failed to meet all their commitments under a January 2003 peace pact.

AFP

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