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Severe flooding in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State in northeastern Nigeria, has led to a large-scale prison break. The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) confirmed that 281 inmates escaped after floodwaters breached the walls of the medium-security prison.
The flooding, triggered by the collapse of a major dam on September 10, 2024, has wreaked havoc across the region. Babagana Zulum, Governor of Borno State, described the destruction as "beyond human imagination." The disaster has claimed at least 30 lives and displaced over a million people, marking it as one of the worst flooding incidents since a similar dam collapse three decades ago.
NCoS spokesperson Umar Abubakar stated, "The floods brought down the walls of the correctional facilities including the Medium Security Custodial Centre, as well as the staff quarters in the city." The prison break was discovered as officers attempted to evacuate inmates to a safer location. To date, only seven of the escaped prisoners have been recaptured.
Governor Zulum raised concerns about the potential security implications, revealing to the BBC that some escapees were members of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram. However, the exact number of jihadist-linked fugitives remains unclear. The NCoS has released photographs of the missing inmates and urged the public to remain calm, asserting that the incident does not pose a threat to public safety.
The dam collapse has had far-reaching consequences beyond the prison break. Hundreds of thousands of Maiduguri residents have been forced to flee their homes. One survivor, who wished to remain anonymous, told the BBC, "I thought I would die with my six children." The state government attributed the dam's failure to its operation at full capacity due to unusually heavy rainfall.
This incident is part of a broader pattern of extreme weather events affecting West Africa. The United Nations reports that flooding in the region has impacted over 2.3 million people in 2024, a threefold increase from the previous year. In 2022, Nigeria experienced floods that claimed more than 600 lives nationwide.
As recovery efforts continue, authorities face the dual challenges of managing the humanitarian crisis and recapturing the escaped inmates. The NCoS has stated that it is collaborating with other security agencies to locate and apprehend the fugitives. Meanwhile, the flooding serves as a stark reminder of the increasing vulnerability of infrastructure to extreme weather events, potentially exacerbated by climate change.
