Nearly a dozen inmates killed in Haiti prison break | Prison news

Authorities advised residents of downtown Saint-Marc to be on the lookout for refugees.

At least 11 inmates have died in a prison break in central Haiti, authorities said, the third such incident this year amid an ongoing humanitarian crisis fueled by gang violence.

Police said inmates escaped from a prison in the coastal town of Saint-Marc, about 88 kilometers north of the capital Port-au-Prince, on Friday.

According to Michel Ange Louis Jeune, spokesman for the Haitian National Police, eleven suspected escaped prisoners were killed in shootouts with police and one was arrested, according to the Associated Press news agency.

He did not provide any further details, such as the number of prisoners who escaped.

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

Francois warned residents to remain vigilant and look out for refugees.

According to Reuters, the mayor of Saint-Marc, Myriam Fievre, said that 12 prisoners had been killed.

Social media footage, which could not be immediately verified, showed people climbing over walls, smoke pouring from barbed wire walls and a loud explosion and fire.

Haitian prisons are severely overcrowded and pre-trial detention can last for years.

Walter Montas, a local government official, said the incident arose from a protest in which prisoners were left without food and suffering poor health conditions.

In December 2014, nearly three dozen of 500 inmates escaped from a prison in Saint-Marc after sawing through steel bars, authorities said.

Conditions in Haiti's prisons are deplorable, with many cells almost four times full to capacity, the United Nations said. This year, 109 prisoners have already died because they lacked basic necessities.

Local media reported that prison officials also went on strike for better treatment.

Due to prison breakouts in Haiti's two largest prisons in March this year, the number of prisoners fell from nearly 12,000 to 7,500 in June, according to the UN.

In view of the increasing gang violence in the Caribbean state, the government was forced to declare a state of emergency.

An increase in attacks in Port-au-Prince eventually led to the resignation of unelected Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, the establishment of an interim presidential council, and the deployment of Kenyan police as part of a United Nations-backed mission to contain the violence.

Police are struggling to keep the gangs in check as delays in providing funds, personnel and equipment for the UN-backed security mission, first requested for 2022, continue.

The unrest forced around 600,000 people to flee their homes and move to other parts of Haiti, and around five million people – about half the population – suffered severe hunger.