700 on the run after ‘Nigerian Taliban’ jailbreak

Almost 700 prisoners who escaped from a Nigerian prison en masse yesterday are still at large as manhunts continue. The escapees include alleged members of Boko Haram, an Islamist group dubbed the 'Nigerian Taliban'.

The huge jailbreak took place in Bauchi, in the northern, mainly Muslim, part of the country. A town resident told Reuters 50 militants with machine guns attacked the jail, shot their way in and went from cell to cell smashing locks.

Four people died in the gun battle between militants and security forces, including one soldier, one policeman and two prisoners. After setting the prison on fire, the militants ran off.

More than 700 prisoners escaped, but 36 who were due for release in the near future have since returned, hoping to be allowed to serve out the rest of their short sentences. Of the escapees, 150 are thought to be Boko Haram members.

Boko Haram, whose name means 'Western education is un-Islamic', are known in Nigeria as the 'Taliban', though they have no links with Afghanistan. Desirous of imposing Sharia law on Nigeria, they have expressed admiration for al Qaeda.

Last year, Boko Haram issued public statements decrying Western science and claiming that the world was flat. In July 2009, almost 800 people died when the sect's members rioted.

Rioters attacked police stations and homes, provoking a fierce crackdown by Nigerian security forces in which Boko Haram leader Mohammed Yusuf is thought to have died. Other sect members were imprisoned – and were among yesterday's escapees.

Boko Haram is not the only armed group fighting the state in Africa's biggest nation. Separatists in the Niger Delta are carrying out a terror campaign including car bombings while, earlier this year, Muslim tribesmen massacred 500 Christians in the central region.

The crises besetting Nigeria drove Nobel laureate author Wole Soyinka to speculate in March that his country could fragment within a year. It has six months left. ·