People near a barricade erected during an anti-government protest in Port-au-Prince on March 1 (Portal/Ralph Tedy Erol)
Ongoing violent anti-government protests have intensified and gangs controlling the capital have attacked several police stations and a prison
This week, month-long violent anti-government protests in Haiti, which led to serious clashes with police, intensified further. Four police officers were killed in clashes with the criminal gangs that control most of the capital Port-au-Prince, and between Friday and Saturday members of some of the gangs attacked several police stations and the country's largest prison, from where, according to the local newspaper Gazette Haiti said a “significant” number of prisoners had escaped.
Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world and has been struggling with a very serious political, social and economic crisis for a long time. The protests are particularly directed against the government of interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who was supposed to organize new elections by February 7th, but did not do so, citing the need to restore stability in the country first.
The protests have been going on for weeks but have expanded in recent days following Henry's visit to Kenya, where he signed an agreement for a United Nations-backed security mission to combat criminal gangs in his country. The leader of the coalition of the country's nine most powerful gangs, Jimmy Chérizier, is leading a large mobilization of Haitian criminal groups to overthrow Henry, claiming he wants to “liberate the country with weapons and people.” In recent days there have been violent armed clashes in Port-au-Prince, including at the airport; The gangs took control of two police stations, threatened to attack others and blocked the port's main freight yard.
On Saturday they also attacked the Port-au-Prince prison, which was designed to house 800 inmates but is estimated to house more than 3,500 inmates. A police officer, quoted anonymously by The Associated Press because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the gangs had overtaken prison security forces although they had not yet taken control. Two Haitian law enforcement unions have called for “mobilization of the army and police” to prevent gangs from entering the prison, which is home to numerous organized crime leaders and some of the people accused of murdering the man killed in July Former President Jovenel Moïse is accused in 2021.
Currently, the Haitian government has not commented on the situation and it is not even clear when Henry is expected to return to Haiti. The violence of recent weeks has significantly hampered efforts to restore some control in the country ahead of possible elections. The last parliamentary and presidential elections in Haiti took place in November 2016, almost ten years ago.
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