A jail riot in southwestern Venezuela has killed dozens of people local media said, the latest in the ongoing crisis in the coutry’s crowded prisons.

A fire at Groenpunt Prison, in the Free State, was part of an elaborate escape plan, the correctional services minister said.

Around 50 inmates of the Groenpunt prison in Deneysville suffered minor injuries in a stampede when police entered the facility after a riot.

Sri Lankan troops have found 11 bodies of convicts raising the death toll in an overnight prison riot in the capital to 27, prisons minister said.

Officials say rioting prisoners in Malawi have briefly stalled the release of convicts who had been granted presidential pardons.

Black warders who have sympathy for prisoners are victimised by their white colleagues.

Warning signs of the past week’s violent prison protests were apparent for some time but were ignored by the authorities.

Housebreaker Clifford Baholo (21), one of the 87 prisoners who escaped from Modderbee, spoke to the <em>Mail & Guardian</em> from a safe house.

The detainees’ hunger strike now involving almost 300 inmates, seven of whom are in hospital is developing into a crisis for the government.