Haiti police battle gangs for control of largest jail

Haiti police appealed for urgent help on Saturday night as they tried to hold back armed gangs trying to storm the National Penitentiary of Port-au-Prince, the country’s largest prison, amid a major escalation of violence in the country.

Intense exchanges of gunfire between the police and the assailants surrounding the complex took place over hours, with media outlets including CNN reporting that “hundreds” of inmates had escaped. One of Haiti’s Police Unions urged all officers in the capital with access to cars and weapons to help police fighting for control over the penitentiary, warning that if the attackers succeed, “we are done. No one will be spared in the capital because there will be 3,000 extra bandits now effective,” it wrote on X.

There are thousands of inmates held in overcrowded and understaffed conditions in the prison, including Colombian citizens accused of participating in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise in July 2021, as well as gang leaders awaiting trial.