Buenos Aires, Mar. 4, (dpa/GNA) – Armed gangs have attacked Haiti’s national prison in Port-au-Prince, apparently allowing hundreds of prisoners to escape.
The police were unable to prevent the gangs from freeing a large number of prisoners who were being held for “kidnapping, murder and other offences,” the government announced on Sunday.
Media reports on the number of escaped prisoners varied – from hundreds to almost all of the nearly 3,700 detainees.
According to the government, several people were injured in the attack on Saturday. But according to multiple media reports, there were also fatalities.
There is also said to have been another attack on a prison east of the capital in Croix-des-Bouquets. It was not clear whether prisoners there were also able to escape.
The Miami Herald newspaper, citing the local UN office, said that 3,696 people were detained in the national prison in the capital Port-au-Prince.
The government statement did not specify how many of them escaped.
But the Lawyers’ Collective for the Defence of Human Rights in Haiti reported that there were fewer than 100 remaining inmates.
The Miami Herald reported the gangs had prepared their attack using drones in order to find out about the movements of the prison guards and determine the best time to attack.
Gang violence in the crisis-ridden Caribbean island nation has escalated again after interim President Ariel Henry visited Kenya recently for talks on an international police operation.
After months of negotiations and a legal tug-of-war, representatives from both countries signed an agreement to this effect on Friday.
According to the deal, the Kenyan government will send 1,000 police officers to impoverished Haiti to help curb violence there.
During the prime minister’s absence, criminal gangs paralysed public life in parts of Haiti’s capital, including shots being fired at the international airport.
According to the government, several police officers were killed.
Several gang leaders had been reportedly been held in the overcrowded Port-au-Prince prison as well as suspects in connection with the assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moïse.
Moïse was killed with 12 shots in his residence on the night of July 7, 2021. Investigators say around 20 Colombian mercenaries carried out the crime on behalf of several masterminds.
The murder’s circumstances have still not entirely been clarified.
According to UN estimates, violent gangs control around 80% of Port-au-Prince and are increasingly extending their sphere of influence to other parts of the country.
The violence is exacerbating the precarious supply situation – according to the UN, almost half of Haiti’s 11 million inhabitants are suffering from acute hunger.
GNA