22 Inmates Breakout from Niger Prison

{{Reports from Niger, indicate that 22 prisoners, including Islamist militants, escaped from a prison in Niger’s capital after several gunmen attacked the jail and killed two guards, the government said on Sunday.}}

The prison break comes a week after al Qaeda-linked groups raided a uranium mine and an army barracks in Niger, raising fears that the conflict in neighboring Mali could spread to other West African states.

Among the 22 prisoners unaccounted for were some convicted on terrorism charges including Alassane Ould Mohamed who was serving a 20-year sentence for the murder of four Saudi Arabians and an American, the government said in a statement.

“This individual is actively being sought,” Niger’s justice minister and government spokesman Marou Amadou said in the statement. “We are asking for the cooperation of the people to intercept them.”

The government said two guards were killed during the raid on the prison on Saturday and three were seriously wounded, while two assailants were killed and two others arrested.

Mohamed was sentenced in June 2012 for his involvement in an attack on a group of tourists on a hunting safari that killed four Saudi nationals in December 2009 and the killing of an American in a bar in Niamey in 2000.

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