30 jailed activists escape after hand grenade explodes in prison in Yemen’s troubled south

30 activists bust out of Yemen prison after blast

SAN’A, Yemen — About 30 jailed southerners escaped from a Yemeni prison after a guard lobbed a hand grenade to disperse an inmates’ protest at the facility, officials said Thursday.

The activists escaped amid a melee that erupted when the grenade exploded in the prison in the southern town of Dalaa, the officials said. Authorities immediately imposed a curfew on the town and launched a manhunt to track down the escaped inmates.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to the media, said four prisoners were wounded in the blast. The inmates were protesting their detention without trial.

Southerners in Yemen complain of neglect and discrimination by the north, and an increasingly vocal southern separatist movement has been coming to blows with the central government. The two parts of the country were separate nations before they united in 1990.

Also Thursday, police fired tear gas to disperse protesters in Dalaa and several other southern towns. The demonstrators were protesting the government’s ongoing crackdown against southern pro-secession activists.

Police officials said scores of protesters were detained.

Tensions have recently escalated in the south, adding to the challenge Yemen’s government already faces from an al-Qaida movement that has set up operations there and a northern rebellion.