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Death toll from Zimbabwe prison riot rises to 5

Xinhua, March 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

Two more inmates died Monday in a hospital in Zimbabwe from injuries sustained during a prison riot last Friday, bringing the death toll to five, an official said.

Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) spokesperson Elizabeth Banda confirmed the deaths to Xinhua, and said one of the inmates died at Parirenyatwa Hospital while the other died at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison hospital.

About 900 inmates ran riot at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare last Friday protesting against poor food. During the riot, inmates torched blankets and damaged property and police and state security agents had to be called in to control the situation.

Scores of inmates and prison guards were injured during the unrest although no prisoner escaped.

Banda said four inmates and two prison guards remain hospitalized while investigations into the matter continue.

The prison, which keeps some of the most notorious criminals, has a population of 4,267 inmates.

The protests came at a time when the poorly resourced ZPCS has been failing to properly feed an estimated 19,000 inmates in the country's prisons. Endi