Thousands of inmates escaped Haiti’s main prison in a chaotic free-for-all after armed gang members overtook the facility Saturday night in the country’s latest shockwave of violence.
At least five people were killed following the coordinated attacks among different gangs in the capital city of Port-au-Prince including an assault on the National Penitentiary — where fewer than 100 inmates remained in their cells, according to Arnel Remy, a human rights attorney who works within the prison.
The rest of the nearly 4,000 prisoners fled during the rampage, leaving the typically overcrowded prison like a ghost town with clothes and plastic sandals strewn about in the inmates’ — and the guards’ — absence. Three bodies with gunshot wounds lay near the facility’s wide open entrance while two other bodies of men lay near a makeshift roadblock of burning tires.
A second prison in Port-au-Prince that holds another 1,400 inmates also encountered a jailbreak and gangs took control of the country’s top soccer stadium while internet service for many citizens was down due to a sliced fiber optic cable during the overnight spate of violence.
The embattled Prime Minister Ariel Henry was out of the country in Kenya during the attacks where he remains in an attempt to garner other nations’ support for a United Nations-backed, Kenyan-led security force for Haiti.
In his absence, the Haitian government has urged citizens to stay vigilant and remain calm.
“The National Police is taking all measures to find the escaped prisoners and arrest those responsible for these criminal acts as well as all their accomplices, so that public order can be restored,” the Communications Ministry of Haiti said in a post on X.
The ministry added that “the criminals did not hesitate to kill civilians, loot and burn public and private property” during the overnight rampage.
The National Penitentiary held several gang leaders before it was stormed by violent gangs.
“Please, please help us,” Colombian inmate Francisco Uribe pleaded in a video message widely shared on social media during the Saturday night attack. “They are massacring people indiscriminately inside the cells.”
Uribe is one of 18 former Colombian soldiers accused of acting as mercenaries in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021. They all chose to stay behind bars.
“I didn’t flee because I’m innocent,” Uribe told journalists from his cell on Sunday.
Following Moïse’s assassination, current prime minister Henry took control of Haiti and has repeatedly pushed back plans for democratic elections for the president and parliament — which haven’t been held in nearly 10 years.
The attack on Haiti’s largest prison illustrates an increasingly dire situation following weeks of coordinated gang violence and attacks on critical institutions like the Central Bank, large hospitals and the country’s international airport.
A former elite police officer turned gang leader, Jimmy Chérizier, is at the head of the recent surge in deadly attacks. Chérizier, also known as Barbecue, said the goal is to prevent Henry’s return to Haiti.
With Post wires.