Authorities in Haiti issued a request for help on Saturday night as they struggled to keep armed groups from gathering at the country’s biggest prison amid what one gang leader called an attempt to topple the government.
Hundreds of prisoners have escaped from Haiti’s National Penitentiary in the capital, Port-au-Prince, after fighting broke out on Saturday, according to a law enforcement source.
Two prominent police unions in Haiti have urgently requested assistance to keep inmates, including numerous high-profile criminals, from escaping the National Penitentiary in the capital, Port-au-Prince. “They are in dire need of assistance,” remarked one of the unions representing Haitian law enforcement, conveying their message via social media accompanied by an “SOS” emoji repeated eight times.
“We urge the deployment of both military and police forces to thwart the attempts of criminals breaching the prison.”
Multiple security sources in Port-au-Prince said the most recent surge in violence, which began Thursday and has targeted police stations, the international airport and the National Penitentiary, is unprecedented in recent years.
On Friday, Haitian gang leader Jimmy Cherizier, also known as Barbecue, said he would continue in his effort to try and oust Prime Minister Ariel Henry.
“We ask the Haitian National Police and the military to take responsibility and arrest Ariel Henry. Once again, the population is not our enemy; the armed groups are not your enemy. You arrest Ariel Henry for the country’s liberation,” Cherizier said, adding “With these weapons, we will liberate the country, and these weapons will change the country.”
Cherizier is a former police officer who heads an alliance of gangs. He has faced sanctions from both the United Nations and the United States Department of Treasury.
Public frustration, which had been building against Henry over his inability to curb the unrest, boiled over after he failed to step down last month, citing the escalating violence.
Under a previous agreement, he had committed to hold elections and transfer power by February 7.
According to local news outlet AyiboPost, police officers stationed at the prison evacuated the facility on Saturday.
The scope of the prison break and the number of escaped inmates remained unknown.
At least four police officers were killed Thursday and dozens have been wounded since the latest spate of brutality began, with Henry meanwhile in Kenya mustering support for a UN-backed international police deployment.
Armed gangs have taken over entire swaths of the country in recent years, unleashing extreme violence that has left the Haitian economy and public health system in tatters.
The latest attacks are part of a coordinated effort by gangs, united under the label “Vivre Ensemble” (“Living Together”).
Cherisier, known by the nickname Barbecue, said in a video posted on social media before the violence began that the armed groups were acting in concert “to get Prime lHenry to step down.”
Henry on Friday was in Nairobi signing a “reciprocal” agreement with Kenya which will deploy police to lead a UN-backed law and order mission to the troubled Caribbean nation.
He left Nairobi on Saturday and reports said he is in his country.
Back in Haiti, approximately 10 police officers protested in front of management offices Friday, demanding recovery of the bodies of their four slain colleagues.
Streets across Port-au-Prince meanwhile were blocked by barricades of burning ties.
The State University Hospital of Haiti, one of the largest public hospitals in the capital, received at least 25 wounded people Thursday.
At two facilities run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in the Tabarre and Cite Soleil districts the number of patients remained the same as normal — approximately 15 per day.
But “the injured come from everywhere now. There are no more quiet areas,” Mumuza Muhindo, the NGO’s head of mission, told the local media.
“It’s becoming difficult for our staff to get into our centers,” he said.
He also said that the supply of medicine could become precarious, with containers stuck at customs.
“If the situation doesn’t change, it will be complicated to continue to maintain our activities,” he said.
At Toussaint-Louverture International Airport flights to the United States and Dominican Republic resumed Friday, a source close to the airlines told AFP.
By Agencies
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