Gunshots rock Arua town as inmates riot

By Richard Adrama
                                  
Gunshots rocked Arua town Sunday afternoon while security agencies battled to stall what seemed to be an escape attempt  ( prison break) by the inmates at Arua central prison.

According to witnesses, the fray  started at about 3.PM following a rowdy noise that engulfed the prison premises in the  Afternoon hours.

A gathering of youth who were playing soccer on the Arua prison primary school ground said that they were baffled by the endless noise that was unusual in the confines of the prison.

“We always play here but got suspicious because we had never heard such noise before,” said one of the boys who identified himself as Hassan.

Three of the inmates who had apparently managed to scale through the prison windows were seen by the New Vision reporter running bare chested past Arua prison primary school while taking off their prison uniforms.                                      
                       .
Meanwhile other inmates were seen cutting the inner burglar proof window frames next to the prison main gate using a hack saw.

Efforts by the prison warders and the regional prison commander, Patrick Masiga to stop the inmates from cutting the windows proved futile as most of them defiantly continued cutting the window frames.

“Ingia Ndani, kilamutu ingia Ndani,” a furious Masiga shouted a command to the inmates, loosely translated as “go back inside every body go back.”

“Harakisha opesi opesi, asi tisatisa nyinyi,” loosely translated as “Hurry up, he should not intimidate you,” Some of them were heard shouting at the other who were cutting the frame.

More prison warders were deployed at 4.30 pm to penetrate the prison premises.  

A handful of UPDF officers from the nearby Arua military barracks reinforced the prison warders before a backup from the police anti-riot unit was convened.

By press time, the New Arua District police commander, had ordered for the deployment of the Anti riot police to head to the prison facility.