Tuesday, December 2, 2008 - 05:20
AFP News Briefs ListMore than 200 escape from top security Liberian jail: police
More than 200 prisoners escaped from Liberia's highest security prison in the heart of the capital Monrovia, after overcoming guards by pelting them with stones and other objects, police said.
The UN mission in the west African country, UNMIL, deployed troops at the South Beach jail after the breakout but only some 30 prisoners were apprehended, a police official said.
The discontented prisoners were spurred among other things by a tuberculosis outbreak in the overcrowded penitentiary.
Liberia was ravaged by back-to-back civil wars between 1989-2003.
Images
File picture shows a general view of the centre of Monrovia the capital of Liberia. More than 200 prisoners escaped from Liberia's highest security prison in the heart of the capital Monrovia, after overcoming guards by pelting them with stones and other objects, police said.
© 2007 AFP Issouf Sanogo
