HAITI is in a state of emergency after a deadly gang assault on the capital’s main prison saw nearly 4,000 inmates freed.
The capital of Port-au-Prince, dubbed the “world’s most dangerous city“, has descended into civil war following days of gang-led attacks, leaving dozens killed in the carnage.
ReutersThe jailbreak has plunged Haiti into further chaos as violence exploded in the capital[/caption]
ReutersA ‘massacre’ has been taking place across Port-au-Prince[/caption]
ReutersPolice are battling to control the spiralling gang-led violence[/caption]
The vicious gang lord Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cherizier has claimed responsibility for the attacks
Over 200 merciless armed gangs rule over at least 80 per cent of Haiti‘s capital inflicting terror, sexual violence, torture and lawlessness.
For over two years, warring factions have torn the city apart and turned every day into a fight for survival.
But the attack on the National Penitentiary on Saturday night was a big shock Haitians, who are painfully used to living in a warzone.
Dozens have been killed since Thursday, including police officers, as gangs stepped up coordinated attacks on state institutions, including the main airport and the national soccer stadium.
A 72-hour state of emergency began Sunday night as the government vowed to find the killers, kidnappers and other violent criminals that escaped en masse from jail.
The emergency decree was issued after a deadly weekend that marked a new low in Haiti’s downward spiral of violence.
Jimmy Chrizier, a former elite police officer known as Barbecue, has claimed responsibility for the surge in attacks.
The cop-turned-warlord is rumoured to have earned his nickname for setting his victims on fire and has led a long reign of terror over the poorest areas of the city.
He is calling for a coordinated attack to remove Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who is currently abroad, and also capture Haiti’s police chief.
“All of us, the armed groups in the provincial towns and the armed groups in the capital, are united,” said Barbecue.
Henry has shrugged off calls for him to resign and didn’t comment when asked if he felt it was safe to come home.
He had travelled to Nairobi on Thursday to discuss the UN sending a Kenya-led multinational security force to help Haiti, kicking off the upsurge in violence.
Almost all of the estimated 4,000 inmates escaped from Haiti’s largest prison, leaving the normally overcrowded jail eerily empty Sunday with no guards in sight.
Three bodies with gunshot wounds lay at the prison entrance.
In another neighbourhood, the bloodied corpses of two men with their hands tied behind the backs lay face down as residents walked past roadblocks set up with burning tires.
Among the few dozen that chose to stay in the prison are 18 former Colombian soldiers accused of working as mercenaries in the July 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Mose.
Amid the fighting Saturday night, several of the Colombians shared a video pleading for their lives.
“Please, please help us,” one of the men, Francisco Uribe, said in the message widely shared on social media. “They are massacring people indiscriminately inside the cells.”
A second Port-au-Prince prison containing around 1,400 inmates was also overrun.
Gang gunmen also took over the nation’s top soccer stadium, holding one employee hostage for hours, Haiti’s soccer federation said.
Internet service for many residents was down as the city’s main fibre optic cable connection was slashed during the rampage.
In the grips of gangs
In the space of less than two weeks, several state institutions have been attacked by the gangs, which are increasingly coordinating their actions and choosing increasingly bold targets.
After gangs opened fire at Haiti’s international airport last week, the US Embassy said it was halting all official travel to the country and on Sunday night urged all American citizens to depart as soon as possible.
The Biden administration said it was monitoring the rapidly deteriorating security situation with grave concern.
Haiti’s National Police has roughly 9,000 officers to provide security for more than 11 million people, according to the U.N.
They are routinely overwhelmed and outgunned by gangs.
Haiti was left wounded from the somewhat unsolved assassination of President Jovenal Moïse in July 2021, which plunged the country into further instability and unrest.
Henry took over as prime minister Moise’s assassination and has repeatedly postponed plans to hold elections, which haven’t happened in almost a decade.
ReutersThe UN is still considering sending a Kenya-led force to the country[/caption]
EPAThe entrance to Haitian National Penitentiary after the attack on Sunday[/caption]
APArmed gangs stormed Haiti’s main prison but a few prisoners stayed put[/caption]
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