Uganda prison break: Manhunt for ‘naked’ Moroto prisoners

Officials say seven of the 219 prisoners who escaped from prisons in northeastern Uganda have been recaptured.

Some fugitives took off their distinctive yellow prison uniforms and fled naked in the mountains to avoid investigation.

The fugitives are believed to be trying to use mountain routes to cross the border into Kenya.

Inmates killed a soldier after a facility collapsed in Moroto on Wednesday.

An army spokesman said the two prisoners had escaped.

Army and prison officials are searching for the fugitives, who were dispatched with 15 guns and ammunition.

The prison facility, which usually has a population of over 60,000 inmates, is located on the outskirts of the city, at the foot of Mount Moroto.

The site is under lock and key as the investigation into the jailbreak continues.

Local reports on Wednesday said the shootout disrupted business in Moroto.

Moroto is the largest city in the semi-arid pastoral area, Karamoja, with a history of pastoralists and gun violence, the BBC’s Patience Etuhair in Kampola reports.

In the government’s disarmament program in the early 2000s, most of the guns were taken from civilians, but sporadic clashes between different communities continue, our correspondent notes.