Port-au-Prince, Mar 3 (EFE).- Chaos engulfed Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, as armed gangs launched a brazen attack on the city’s civil prison, resulting in at least a dozen deaths and the escape of several dangerous criminals.
The assailants seized control of Haiti’s largest jail, leaving behind a scene of devastation and sparking fears of escalating violence across the nation as it grapples with the aftermath of the prison siege.
An EFE journalist saw at least 10 corpses, some of them torn apart by dogs, around the prison.
There is a possibility that the death toll might increase, even though the government has not confirmed anything about the situation.
Reports suggest that the police, seemingly regaining control of the situation, have also collected some bodies from the streets.
Haitians woke to a tense calm on Saturday morning after a night of intense confrontations between the armed assailants and the police that saw the attackers storm into the civil prison, the largest in Port-au-Prince.
Social media images showed the audacious tactics of gang leaders, including the monitoring of key government institutions with sophisticated drones.
Speculations mounted that the next target of the armed groups could be the National Palace.
The gangs are using social media to reveal their plans to take control of all state institutions, to overthrow the government.
At the moment, there is no news about the return to the country of Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, after attending the summit of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) in Guyana and his subsequent trip to Kenya, where he discussed the deployment to Haiti of the multinational security support mission led by that African country and approved by the UN in October.
On Friday, Kenya and Haiti signed a bilateral agreement requested by the courts of the African country to allow the deployment of a contingent of 1,000 police officers.
Since Thursday, violence has escalated in Haiti, after Bahamian Prime Minister Phillip Davis stated that his Haitian counterpart, Ariel Henry, had committed to holding elections before Aug.31, 2025. EFE
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