ABIDJAN, June 4, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Five prisoners were killed in an Ivory Coast prison on Tuesday during a search operation that degenerated into a confrontation, the public prosecutor said.

Prisoners reacted with "hostility" to a "routine" operation, said Abel Nangbele Yeo in a statement, adding that 29 people -- six prison officers and 23 prisoners -- were also injured during the confrontation at the prison in the central city of Bouake.

With 27,000 inmates, Ivory Coast has many more prisoners than its jails are designed to hold, according to the online tracker Prison Insider.

"On Tuesday, 3 June 2025, the prison administration conducted a search of the Bouake prison with a view to removing all items contrary to regulations that might be found there," Yeo said.

"Upon reaching Building E, the officers encountered hostility from the inmates in that wing, who attacked them with clubs, machetes and other blunt objects."

"Under attack and overwhelmed, the officers fired warning shots to cover their retreat," he said, adding national police had helped to "contain the violence and restore order" and the 29 wounded were being treated.

The search "continued without further incident" and uncovered cannabis, pills and knives as well as 18 mobile phones and three grenades.

In April, one inmate of Bouake prison died of asphyxiation and three people were wounded during an escape attempt.

A week later, 12 inmates were wounded at a detention facility in the coastal city of Abidjan during a riot.

The UN Committee Against Torture expressed concern in July about reports of "extreme prison overcrowding" and poor detention conditions in Ivory Coast.

Ivorian civil society organisations regularly point to the excessive use of pre-trial detention and lack of sentence adjustments, according to Prison Insider.

The authorities claim to have opened new prisons in recent years and that various presidential pardons granted between 2019 and 2023 have led to the release of around 11,000 prisoners.