Thousands of inmates escaped Haiti’s main prison in a chaotic free-for-all after armed gang members overtook the facility Saturday night in the country’s latest shockwave of violence.
Thousands of inmates escaped Haiti’s main prison in a chaotic free-for-all after armed gang members overtook the facility Saturday night in the country’s latest shockwave of violence.
At least five people were killed following the coordinated attacks among different gangs in the capital city of Port-au-Prince including an assault on the National Penitentiary — where fewer than 100 inmates remained in their cells, according to Arnel Remy, a human rights attorney who works within the prison.
The rest of the nearly 4,000 prisoners fled during the rampage, leaving the typically overcrowded prison like a ghost town with clothes and plastic sandals strewn about in the inmates’ — and the guards’ — absence.
Three bodies with gunshot wounds lay near the facility’s wide open entrance while two other bodies of men lay near a makeshift roadblock of burning tires.
A second prison in Port-au-Prince that holds another 1,400 inmates also encountered a jailbreak and gangs took control of the country’s top soccer stadium while internet service for many citizens was down due to a sliced fiber optic cable during the overnight spate of violence.
