NIGERIA (ABUJA): In one of the country's biggest jailbreaks, more than 1,800 prisoners fled after heavily armed men stormed a prison in southern Nigeria with bombs, according to prison officials.
According to the national prisons authority, the attackers blasted their way into the Owerri prison in Imo state, engaging guards in a gun fight.
"I can confirm that the Nigerian Correctional Service's Imo State command was targeted in Owerri by unknown gunmen," Imo state prisons service spokesman James Madugba told AFP, adding that the number of escaping inmates was still unknown.
He said, "The situation is under control."
Before storming the jail, the assailants arrived in pickup trucks and vans, according to the correctional authority.
In a tweet, President Muhammadu Buhari described the attack as a "act of terrorism" and urged security forces to apprehend the attackers and prisoners who had fled.
Following the prison break, the governor of neighbouring Abia state put a night curfew on two towns to protect local residents, according to a statement.
Imo state is located in an area that has long been a hotbed for separatist movements, with frequent clashes between the federal government and the indigenous Igbo people.
The separatist movement of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has recently been uploading videos on social media of hundreds of its militiamen in school.
Following violence between the army and local militia, officials placed a curfew on areas of Imo State earlier this year.
In a statement to AFP, IPOB spokesman Emmanuel Powerful denied any complicity in the Imo prison attack, calling any allegations "lies."
After a unilateral declaration of independence from British control in 1967, which triggered a bloody 30-month civil war, calls for an independent state of Biafra are a touchy issue in Nigeria.
Prisons in Africa's most populated country are often overcrowded and have inadequate sanitation, and up to 70% of prisoners are on remand and can be held for years before trial.
