Cote d'Ivoire army to guard prisons after successive evasions

Cote d'Ivoire's Defence Minister Paul Koffi Koffi said that the country's prisons will be guarded by the army after successive evasions that have been observed in the recent days. While addressing a press conference on Monday in Abidjan, Koffi deplored the frequent escapes by detainees from prisons which are mostly guarded by prison warders. "The army will deploy officers who will guard the country's 33 prisons," the defence minister said. Speaking of the recent incident when prisoners escaped from Daloa prison in the central-western parts of the country, the minister said that majority of those who had fled were re-arrested by the security forces and returned to their cells. It will be recalled that about 20 detainees escaped from Daloa prison on the night of Saturday to Sunday, September 1. In the course of the month of July several Cote d'Ivoire towns among them Abidjan and Agboville, were hit by massive escape of prisoners, forcing the country's authorities to sack the officials of the concerned prisons. In August, detainees also escaped from the prisons in the central town of Bouake and the northern town of Korhogo as well as from Dabou prison in the southern parts of the country.