Two prison guards were killed on Sunday, March 5, by Salafist prisoners, following a mutiny in the civil prison of Nouakchott. After exchanges of gunfire, the Salafist detainees, considered very dangerous, took possession of the prison following the death of the two guards and the escape of the others. “At 9 p.m. on March 5, 2023, four terrorists managed to escape from the Nouakchott central prison, following assaulting the guards, which led to an exchange of fire during which two members of the National Guard died and two others were slightly injured,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement. The security authorities have launched a vast operation to find the fugitives following reinforcing the device around government buildings. “The National Guard has tightened its control over the prison and immediately began to track down the fugitives, in order to arrest them as quickly as possible,” also assured the ministry, which called on citizens to provide any information that might contribute to their capture.
During this mutiny, four Salafists made themselves beautiful, according to information provided by the prison management. They are Cheikh Saleck, sentenced to death for high treason and carrying weapons, Mohamed Rassoul Echibh, sentenced to death for carrying weapons once morest the State as well as for having committed attacks with the intention of killing, Mohamed Yeslem Mohamed Mahmoud sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2020 for trying to join a rally with the aim of committing terrorist crimes and Abdel Kerim Boubakar Sedigh who was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2021 for trying to join a rally in the purpose of committing terrorist crimes and receiving training abroad.
Warning
For the moment, it is not known whether common law prisoners did not take advantage of the situation to take to their heels. Imprisoned since 2011 for an attempted assassination of former President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, the Salafist Saleck Ould Cheikh is not his first escape. Indeed, he is the author of an extraordinary escape from his prison in Nouakchott on December 31, 2015. He will be arrested in Guinea Bissau and repatriated to Nouakchott.
This escape by Salafists comes the day following the publication of an interview with Mauritanian President Mohamed Cheikh Ghazwani on the BBC. In this interview, the Mauritanian Rais who speaks little, affirmed, in essence, that his country has succeeded in curbing terrorism by using effective means. “Our goal is to send messages to these terrorists to dissuade them from coming to us and I believe they have understood that,” he said.
Therefore, one can wonder if this action of the Salafists in prison does not sound like a warning; they come to prove that they are still dangerous, even from prison cells. And that Mauritania, bordering countries where terrorism is rampant and even gaining ground and where the sound of boots is often heard, must therefore remain vigilant and remember that jihadists had been stopped, in 2011, at the gates of Nouakchott in two cars packed with explosives. An investigation will have to determine, in the days to come, whether or not these prisoners benefited from internal or external complicity.
Writing
