30 Moroto prison escapees captured

Moroto, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT |   At least 30 escapees from Moroto government prison have been re-arrested from various parts of the country. Karamoja Region Prisons Commander, Sam Edotu, says the inmates were re-arrested from various areas especially in Karamoja in joint security operations led by Uganda People’s Defense Forces-UPDF.

 “Through joint operations with our sister forces including the UPDF and police, we have managed to capture 30 of them. They are here in Singila, (Moroto Prison) but the search operations are still ongoing,” said Edotu over the weekend.

According to Edotu, the inmates have been charged with escaping from lawful custody and looting government stores. He says search operations are still ongoing using all government structures like the office of the Resident District Commissioners, District Internal Security Officers-DISOs, local councils, police and the general public to re-arrest the remaining inmates. 

He says they have circulated the lists of the names of all escapees to all relevant offices to ease the search efforts. The captured inmates are part of the 219 prisoners who broke out of Moroto prisons on September 19th, 2020 with 14 guns and an unspecified number of live ammunition.

Last month, Uganda Prison Services announced a cash bounty of Shillings 500, 000 shillings to anyone who volunteers information leading to the re-arrest of an escapee and Shillings 1.5 million for information leading to the recovery of a firearm. 14 inmates were killed in gun battles with security while 175 are still unaccounted for.

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