PRINCE PORT.- At least three people died and hundreds of inmates fled the Port-au-Prince National Penitentiary, Haiti’s main prison, after an armed group broke into the prison facilities overnight Saturday.
The escape comes amid the downward spiral of violence in Haiti and occurs as gangs take greater control over the Haitian capital. While Prime Minister Ariel Henry is abroad trying to drum up support for a United Nations-backed security force to stabilize the country.
On Sunday morning, the shot bodies of three people could be seen lying on the ground near the entrance to the prison, which was wide open, with no guards in sight.
Officers inside a single police vehicle parked outside the facility refused to say what had happened.
Arnel Remy, a human rights lawyer who runs a nonprofit and works inside prisons, said on X, formerly Twitter, that fewer than 100 of the nearly 4,000 inmates held at the facilities remain behind bars.
Colombians decide not to flee
Among those who chose to stay are 18 former Colombian soldiers accused of working as mercenaries in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021.
Several of them in the midst of the riots shared a video urgently asking for their lives. During the chaos, the police also called for help.
The Haitian National Police has approximately 9,000 officers to provide security to more than 11 million people, according to the UN. Officers are often overwhelmed and outgunned by the powerful gangs, which are estimated to control up to 80% of Port-au-Prince.
“Please, please help us, they are massacring people indiscriminately inside the cell,” said one of the men, Francisco Uribe, in a 30-second video shared on social media. This Sunday, Uribe said: “I didn’t fly because I am innocent.”
In the absence of official information, relatives of the prisoners rushed to the prison to try to find their loved ones.
“I don’t know if my son is alive or not,” “I don’t know what to do,” said one of the inmates’ mothers, Alexandre Jean, while checking the cells.
While a union representing the Haitian police published a message on its social networks with an “SOS” emoji repeated eight times that said: “They need help. Let us mobilize the army and the police to prevent the bandits from entering the prison.”
Other areas in confrontation
Clashes elsewhere in Port-au-Prince disrupted internet service and the country’s main mobile phone company, Digicel, said a fiber optic cable connecting the country to the rest of the world had been cut.
The armed clashes come amid a series of violent protests that have been brewing for some time but became more deadly in recent days when Henry, the prime minister, traveled to Kenya to save a proposed security mission in Haiti. which would be led by that East African country.
Henry took over as prime minister following the assassination of former Haitian President Jovenel Moise in July 2021, and has repeatedly postponed plans to hold parliamentary and presidential elections, which have not been held in nearly a decade.
As part of coordinated attacks by gangs, four police officers were killed Thursday in the capital when gunmen opened fire on several targets, including Haiti’s international airport.
Gang members also took control of two police headquarters, prompting civilians to flee in fear and forcing businesses and schools to close.
As a result of the violence at the airport, the United States Embassy in Port-au-Prince reported that it will temporarily suspend all official travel to Haiti.
Jimmy Chérizier, a former elite police officer known as Barbecue who now heads a gang federation, took credit for the rise in attacks. He noted that the objective was to capture the police chief and ministers of the Haitian government and prevent Henry’s return.
Various versions, reported in local media, suggest that the National Palace could be the next objective of the armed groups, which seek to gain strength before the arrival in Haiti of the multinational security support mission that Kenya will lead.
Source: With information from AP
