Inmates escape from Haiti prison north of the capital in the third jail break in months (2024)

Detainees have escaped from another prison in Haiti. The latest prison break occurred north of the capital in the city of St. Marc, where the local business community has been calling for police reinforcement for days against ruthless gangs making inroads into the city.

Haiti National Police spokesman Michel-Ange Louis-Jeune said the prison was attacked around 2 a.m. Friday by gang members, leading “several prisoners” to escape. One of the escapees was arrested in the city of Arcahaie with the help of the public and 11 others “were mortally wounded in an exchange of gunfire with the police.” Louis-Jeune could not say how many prisoners remain at large.

A notice informing the public of the prison break was issued by the local St. Marc police station earlier in the day. It asked the public to report any suspicious persons resembling escaped detainees and said the local police “are mobilized to search for the escapees.”

Images of videos showed detainees climbing over a wall and others walking through a street accompanied by armed gang members. There was also a cloud of black smoke billowing from the prison grounds. Local media said prior to the prison break guards had been on strike demanding better working conditions.

This is the third prison break in Haiti in five months. In early March, gangs raided the country’s two largest prisons, the National Penitentiary and the civil prison in Croix-des-Bouquets, leading to the escape of more than 4,000 detainees. Among the escapees were dangerous criminals including gang leaders, murderers and people indicted in the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.

“Up to now the police have not said how many of them have been caught,” said Marie Yolene Gilles, a human rights advocate who closely monitors Haiti’s prisoners and confirmed the St. Marc escapes.

Gilles said she was still trying to gather details, but she isn’t surprised. “Once one prison falls, others fall; it’s like a domino effect,” she said.

As of July, the St. Marc prison held about 500 inmates, said Gilles, who runs the Fondasyon Je Klere/Eyes Wide Open Foundation. Last month, the prison administration relocated more than 150 inmates from a prison in the city of Carrefour, south of Port-au-Prince, after armed gangs attacked the main police station.

Armed groups in Haiti have continued to move into cities despite the arrival of 400 Kenyan police officers, who began deploying in June to lead as part of a multinational security mission.

On Thursday night, violence erupted in the Solino neighborhood of the capital not far from the presidential palace. Louis-Jeune said one police officer was killed by armed bandits during the attack, which forced residents to abandon their homes.

Louis-Jeune said that further east in Tabarre an earlier escapee, Cassales Blanco, who was known as “Gros Fanfan” or “Fanfan Anvayi,” who had fled from National Penitentiary in March, was among five people killed during a police operation at the Anvayi Hotel. Blanco was the proprietor of the hotel and a member of the “Viv Ansanm” gang alliance that tried to take down the government earlier this year, the police spokesman said.

“His job was to distribute ammunition and guns to the gangs,” Louis-Jeune added.

During the Tabarre operation one police officer was seriously wounded and was hospitalized. A prison guard known to help prisoners get contraband inside the National Penitentiary was killed.

In all, 15 people were arrested, Louis-Jeune said, including three police officers and two journalists. The journalists were found in possession of three guns, including an automatic weapon, and were driving around in a vehicle with government plates.

As of June 30, there were 7,523 people being held in Haiti’s prisons, according to the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti. Of these, 84% were in pre-trial detention, meaning they had never seen a judge, and the cell occupancy rate was 295% above capacity.

Haiti has one of the region’s most troubled prison systems. Prisons are not only overcrowded and vulnerable to security breaches, but inmates suffer from food shortages, poor hygiene and illnesses, including a rise in HIV/AIDS and malnutrition. The poor conditions regularly lead to deaths.

Between April 1 and June 30, 78 inmates died, the U.N. said, “most of them due to a lack of care... insufficient food and lack of access to drinking water.” This week, three more deaths were added to the toll when detainees at the Civil Prison of Jacmel reportedly died from anemia.

At the CERMICOL juvenile detention center in Delmas, where women are currently being held after their prison in Cabaret was overtaken by armed gangs, the number of detainees is currently 400% over capacity. The prison was built to hold just 60 inmates, human rights advocates say.

The U.N. also said in its report that between April 1 and June 30, at least 1,379 people were killed or injured and another 428 kidnapped in Haiti, where nearly 600,000 people remain displaced by armed gangs. Though the numbers represent a 44% drop in killings and gunshot wounds and a 2% drop in kidnappings compared to the previous quarter, attacks by armed groups persist, the U.N.said. In recent weeks, several communities on the borders of Port-au-Prince have come under increasing attacks by armed gangs.