Haiti declares state of emergency and curfew after thousands of prisoners escape

The government of Haiti decreed a state of emergency and night curfew in Port-au-Prince on Sunday, after attack on two prisons at least the one left a dozen dead and allowed thousands of prisoners to escape.

The government has decreed a state of emergency in the department of Ouest, which includes the capital Port-au-Prince, and a curfew from 6pm to 5am starting from Sunday until Wednesday 6 March, an official statement reports. .

The state of emergency and the curfew They could be extended.

The gang leaders responsible for the escapes say they want it force the resignation of the prime minister Ariel Henry, who had traveled abroad.

The groups trying to overthrow him They control about 80% of Port-au-Prince.

Gang violence has plagued Haiti for years.

This was stated in a government statement two prisons – one in the capital and another in nearby Croix des Bouquets – were attacked at the weekend.

Economy Minister Patrick Michel Boisvert signed the emergency measure as interim prime minister.

Prime Minister Henry was in Kenya to sign an agreement for sending the police from the country African as part of a United Nations-supported mission help restore order to the country The Caribbean tormented by criminal gangs.

The government has indicated that the aim of the restrictions is to “restore order and take appropriate measures to regain control of the situation”.

Armed gangs and violent criminal acts

The curfew was instituted “due to the deterioration of security” in Port-au-Prince, where “increasingly violent criminal acts perpetrated by armed gangs”, reads the note.

“The escape dangerous prisoners“endangers national security,” the government said.

“Security forces have been ordered to use all legal means at their disposal to enforce the curfew and arrest all violators,” he added.

Haiti, poor Caribbean country, is facing a major political, humanitarian and security crisis following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021.

security forces they seem overwhelmed due to the violence of the gangs that have taken control of entire areas of the country, including the capital.

At least a dozen people died during the escape of several thousand inmates at Port-au-Prince’s national penitentiary attacked by armed gangs trying to free prisoners, an NGO and an AFP journalist reported on Sunday.

“Many bodies of detainees have been counted,” Pierre Espérance, executive director of the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH), told AFP on Sunday.

Before the attack, There were approximately 3,800 prisoners in the prisonThere were only about a hundred left then, Espérance said.

An AFP journalist who visited the prison on Sunday morning He saw a dozen bodies around the prison.

Some of the corpses had projectile or projectile impactsaccurate.

“The door was open”

THE the door was “open” and “there was almost no one there”said the reporter.

Since Thursday, armed gangs have been attacking strategic locations in the capital, saying they want to overthrow the controversial prime minister who has been in power since 2021 and is expected to leave office at the beginning of February.

On Saturday night, police officers “tried to repel an assault by criminal gangs on the National Penitentiary and the Croix des Bouquets prison,” the Haitian government said.

The Haitian government denounced the fury of heavily armed criminals who wanted to free the prisoners at any cost, especially for kidnapping, murder and other serious crimes“.

The national police “will do everything in its power to locate the escaped prisoners and arrest those responsible for these criminal acts and their accomplices”, the government assured.

It is currently unknown how many prisoners managed to escape from the Croix des Bouquets prison, Pierre Espérance said.

Before the attack there were about 1,450 prisoners at Croix des Bouquets, he said.

Various common criminals, known gang leaders and people accused of the murder of President Jovenel Moïse They were detained in the National Penitentiary, located a few hundred meters from the National Palace.