An armed group broke into two of Haiti’s prisons and let thousands of inmates escape. As a result, the country has now declared a 72-hour state of emergency.
Several news outlets say that the jails in Port-au-Prince and Croix-des-Bouquets were broken into. Gang members took over both jails, and most of the 4,000 prisoners in Port-au-Prince are thought to have gotten away.
Haiti made a state of emergency and put a curfew in place on Sunday. Finance Minister Patrick Boisvert said that cops should use “all legal means” to find the prisoners who got away. Boisvert is in charge of Haiti while Prime Minister Ariel Henry is on vacation in Kenya.
A lawyer from Haiti named Arnel Remy said that 3,597 prisoners got away. The U.N. warned that the Haitian government is getting worse as gang bloodshed and lawlessness spread across the country. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that Haiti has “widespread political, social, and economic problems that are made worse by frequent natural disasters.”
A police union in Haiti put a message on X saying that they needed everyone’s help to get these prisoners back. “There will be 3000 more bandits in the capital after today, so no one will be safe,” the message said.
During the prisoner escape, the U.S. Embassy in Haiti urged American people living in Haiti to return to the U.S. as soon as possible. Because of “gang-related violence and its effects on transportation and infrastructure,” the Embassy said that operations would be stopped and that more work might have to be put off.
