News - In Nigeria, flooding helped hundreds of prisoners escape

281 inmates have escaped from a prison in the city of Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria. The escape was aided by widespread flooding caused by a dam bursting due to heavy rains, the prison authorities said. According to prison spokesman Umar Abubakar, the inmates, including members of the Islamist group “Boko Haram”, managed to escape after the collapse of one of the walls of the prison due to a powerful flow of water, DW reports. Some of the escapees, according to Abubakar, have already been caught. The identities of the remaining escapees have been made public and the search for them continues.Severe flooding in West and Central Africa has caused the destruction of tens of thousands of buildings. According to the latest figures from the disaster management agency NEMA, weeks of flooding in Nigeria have led to the evacuation of 386,000 people and the deaths of 229 Nigerians.