Port-au-Prince [Haiti], March 4 : The Haiti government declared a state of emergency on Sunday after thousands of prisoners escaped from its largest prison, Haiti's National Penitentiary, during a surge of gang violence that has upended the Caribbean nation for months, reported CNN.
Finance minister Patrick Boivert in a statement said that the government cited the "deterioration of security," notably in the capital Port-au-Prince, and "increasingly violent criminal acts perpetrated by armed gangs," including kidnappings and killings of citizens, violence against women and children and looting.
The finance minister further noted the attacks by armed groups on Saturday against the country's two largest prisons, one in Port-au-Prince and another in Croix des Bouquets, which led to the escape of "dangerous prisoners" and caused deaths and injuries to police and prison staff, according to CNN.
A United Nations source said that around 3,500 prisoners have escaped Haiti's National Penitentiary in Port-Au-Prince during the weekend.
There were 3,687 prisoners at prison, the source said.
Notablt, the UN mission in Haiti tracks incarcerated populations and humanitarian conditions in prisons in the country.
According to Haitian lawyer Arnel Remy, head of the Collective of Lawyers for the Defense of Human Rights in Haiti, (CADDHO), a total of 3,597 prisoners escaped from the National Penitentiary.
However, CNN cannot independently verify CADDHO's figures.
Haitian lawyer Arnel Remy said that his team was present at the prison on Sunday, adding that the remaining inmates are being shifted to other facilities and that the penitentiary is now empty and surrounded by police vehicles, CNN reported.
Earlier on Sunday, the Haitian Ministry of Communication said in a statement that police confronted "heavily armed criminals seeking at any cost to free people from custody" and were "not able to stop the criminals from freeing a large number of prisoners."
Moreover, the violence left several inmates and prison staff injured, it said.
The most recent rise in violence, which started on Thursday and has targeted police stations, the international airport and the National Penitentiary, is unprecedented in recent years, CNN reported citing multiple security sources in Port-au-Prince.
On Friday, Haitian gang leader Jimmy Cherizier, also known as Barbecue, said he would continue to make efforts to try and oust Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, according to CNN report.
Cherizier said, "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." He added, "With these weapons, we will liberate the country, and these weapons will change the country."
People in Haiti are disappointed over Henry's inability to control the unrest, boiled over after he did not step down in February, citing the escalating violence.
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