Hundreds of prisoners have escaped from Haiti’s National Penitentiary in the capital, Port-au-Prince, after fighting broke out. On Thursday 1, the armed gangs that control much of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, launched coordinated attacks they said were intended to overthrow the government while PM Ariel Henry was traveling in Africa.
In a post on X, one of Haiti’s Police Unions pleaded for all officers in the capital with access to cars and weapons to assist police battling to maintain control of the penitentiary, and warned that if the attackers were successful “we are done. No one will be spared in the capital because there will be 3,000 extra bandits now effective,” according to the statement.
Jimmy Chérizier, a gang leader known as “Barbecue,” said he wanted to prevent Mr. Henry from returning to Haiti. “With our guns and with the Haitian people, we will free the country,” he affirmed in a video message.
“We ask the Haitian National Police and the military to take responsibility and arrest Ariel Henry. Once again, the population is not our enemy; the armed groups are not your enemy. You arrest Ariel Henry for the country’s liberation,” Cherizier said, adding “With these weapons, we will liberate the country, and these weapons will change the country.”
The gang leader is a former police officer who heads an alliance of gangs. He has faced sanctions from both the United Nations and the United States Department of Treasury.
Businesses, government offices and schools were consequently forced to close as gang members took it to social media to boast about the police casualties they had inflicted.
All the while, Kenya and Haiti signed a security deal on Friday 2, intended to remove the last major obstacle to the deployment of 1,000 Kenyan police officers to the gang-ravaged Caribbean nation. The two nations proceeded with the signing despite facing opposition from Human Rights groups and the court.
It was revealed that the government overlooked a number of obligations, including constitutional provisions; public participation and perception; and available alternatives, which should have been resolved ahead of the announcement.
Speaking at the announcement, Mr. Ruto insisted that Kenya had a “historic duty” to press ahead because “peace in Haiti is good for the world as a whole.”
