Inmates killed in third prison break this year – DW – 17.08.2024

About a dozen people were killed on Friday when inmates escaped from a prison in Haiti.

Eleven suspected escaped prisoners were killed in shootouts with police in the town of Saint-Marc and one inmate was also arrested, police spokesman Michel Ange Louis Jeune told the Associated Press.

Unconfirmed footage posted on social media showed smoke and flames rising from the prison, and gunshots and explosions could be heard.

“The situation is under control, but the consequences are catastrophic. All the policemen's dormitories have burned down. The archives have burned down. They have set fire to everything except their cells,” prosecutor Venson Francois told Reuters.

Officials fear “mutiny” in prison

Officials said the prison in Saint-Marc houses more than 500 inmates.

Haitian newspaper The New List reported that prison staff had gone on strike to demand better treatment.

Francois told the newspaper he feared a “mutiny” and suspected that guards might have been involved in the prison break.

Meanwhile, local government official Walter Montas claimed that the prisoners were protesting against food shortages and poor health conditions.

Haiti: Gang violence sweeps through

Friday's prison break was the third such incident in Haiti this year.

In March, gangs freed thousands of inmates from two of the country's largest prisons near the capital, Port-au-Prince.

The coordinated gang attacks eventually led to the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who had traveled abroad to secure Kenya's support for the deployment of police against armed gangs in Haiti.

A transitional government under acting Prime Minister Garry Conille has now been tasked with restoring order, but so far only 400 of the 1,000 officials Kenya promised as part of a UN-mandated mission have arrived in Haiti.

Haiti has been plagued by gang violence for months. Armed groups control large parts of the country. The fighting, which is most intense in the capital Port-au-Prince, has forced around 600,000 people to flee and plunged almost half the population into severe hunger.

zc/msh (Reuters, AP)