The largest prison in Haiti, the National Penitentiary of Port-au-Prince, was taken over by armed gangs during the night of this Saturday and an unknown number of prisoners fled, after intense exchanges of exchanges took place for hours around the prison. shots between the police and the assailants.
“The bandits have stormed the National Penitentiary of Port-au-Prince and have allowed a certain number of detainees to escape,” reported the French embassy in Haiti.
The takeover of the prison by heavily armed gang members occurred after hours of attacks, as the gangs had announced on social media since the previous day.
In the civil prison there are hundreds of prisoners living in inhumane conditions, including Colombian citizens accused of participating in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise in July 2021, as well as gang leaders awaiting trial.
After the country’s main prison, the National Palace could be the next target of armed groups, who are determined to overthrow the government of Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry.
So far there have been no official communications about what is happening tonight, marked by the gang attack on several public institutions.
Various versions suggest that the objective of the violent groups would be to gain strength before the arrival in Haiti of the multinational security support mission that Kenya will lead.
This Friday, Kenya and Haiti signed in Nairobi a bilateral agreement requested by the courts of the African country to allow the deployment of a contingent of 1,000 police officers of that nationality, within the multinational security support mission that the Kenyans will lead and to which the The UN gave its approval last October
Haiti is experiencing an escalation of violence since the Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Phillip Davis, assured on Thursday that his Haitian counterpart, Ariel Henry, had committed to holding elections before August 31, 2025.
