Chaos is worsening in Haiti, where at least a dozen people died when several thousand inmates escaped from the state prison in Port-au-Prince; This prison was attacked on the night of Saturday 2 March to Sunday 3 March by armed gangs seeking to free prisoners.
“We counted many bodies of prisoners,” Pierre Espérance, executive director of the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH), told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Sunday. He said there were around 100 inmates still in prison on Sunday, compared to around 3,800 before the attack.
An AFP journalist who visited the site on Sunday morning saw around ten bodies around the prison. According to him, some bore traces of bullets or projectiles. He was able to go to the correctional facility where the door was “open” and where there was “almost no one,” he said.
The government speaks of “heavily armed criminals”
On the night of Saturday to Sunday, police officers tried to “repel an attack by criminal gangs on the state penitentiary and the Croix des Bouquets prison,” according to a government statement. “Several prisoners and prison administration staff were injured in this attack,” he added.
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The government condemned “the rampage of heavily armed criminals who want to free people in custody at any cost, especially for kidnapping, murder and other serious crimes.” The state police “will do everything possible to track down escaping prisoners and arrest those responsible for these crimes as well as their accomplices,” the government assured.
According to Pierre Espérance, it is currently unknown how many inmates managed to escape from the Croix des Bouquets prison. Before the attack, about 1,450 prisoners were housed there, he said.
The deployment of an international mission is expected
Haiti is a poor Caribbean country facing a severe political, security and humanitarian crisis since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021. Security forces are overwhelmed by gang violence that has taken control of large parts of the country, including the capital Port-au-Prince. Armed gangs have been attacking strategic locations since Thursday, claiming they want to overthrow controversial Prime Minister Ariel Henry. The latter has been in power since 2021 and was due to leave office at the beginning of February.
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Several common-law prisoners, known gang leaders and people accused of the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse have been incarcerated in the National Prison, located just a few hundred meters from the National Palace.
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On Friday, Kenya and Haiti signed an agreement to send Kenyan police officers to the Caribbean country as part of a United Nations-backed international mission. During a visit to Nairobi this week, Ariel Henry discussed “accelerating the deployment” of this force with Kenyan President William Ruto. The Kenyan parliament confirmed the operation before it was blocked by a court decision in late January.
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