Ugandan inmates stage polling day escape - Yahoo! News

Ugandan inmates stage polling day escape - Yahoo! News:

KAMPALA (AFP) - Some 80 Ugandan prisoners took advantage of distractions over the country's elections to escape from a work detail, an official said.

With one shift of warders at their minimum security jail assigned to protect polling stations and attention squarely focused on the vote, the inmates slipped away from guards while fetching water for the facility.

Johnson Byabasaija, chief of the prison in Uganda's northern Apac district, about 350 kilometers (215 miles) from Kampala, told AFP, "Warders were there, but this is a low-security prison."

He said 20 of the escapees he described as "mainly petty criminals" had been recaptured despite the fact that most warders and police had been deployed to polling stations.

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