Dakar, Senegal - A Senegalese prisoner notorious for his serial jailbreaks was re-arrested on Thursday, police said, after making his latest escape in the West African country last weekend.
Baye Modou Fall, dubbed the "Escape Ace", slipped out of a penitentiary in the north of the seaside capital Dakar late Saturday.
Senegalese media say the 32-year-old has already escaped from prison 12 times.
On Monday, the fugitive described, in an interview with a private television channel, how he broke a ventilation grate in his cell and then rappelled down the prison wall.
"I always knew that I could get out of the prison at any time, night or day," Fall said.
But a spokesman for Senegal's gendarmerie told AFP on Thursday that officers had captured the escapee in Moussala, a village in the east of the country, near the border with Mali.
He added that an elite unit of gendarmes would transfer Fall back to Dakar.
In his television interview, Fall explained that he broke out of jail "not because I am bandit" but because of the slow pace of his trial, adding that he would show up for his court date once it is scheduled.
Rights groups regularly criticise the widespread use of pre-trial detention in Senegal, which contributes to overcrowding in prisons.
In 2019, the government put forward a plan to use electronic monitoring tags as a substitute for pre-trial detention, but it has yet to be implemented.