PORT-AU-PRINCE: Haiti’s schools and banks shut Monday with residents only venturing out for essentials, after authorities declared a state of emergency to try to regain control following an attack on a prison that freed thousands of inmates.
The prison break came in a new spate of extreme violence in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, where armed gangs who control much of the city have wreaked havoc since last week.
The gangs say they want to oust Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who has led the crisis-wracked Caribbean nation since the assassination of president Jovenel Moise in 2021.
An AFP reporter said some locals were on the street looking to buy water and fuel the morning after the state of emergency and a nighttime curfew was declared.
About a dozen people died in the violence at the National Penitentiary in the capital on Saturday night, the reporter observed, with only a few of the estimated 3,800 inmates still inside the facility.
In a statement late Sunday, the Haitian government said security forces would
“use all legal means at their disposal to enforce the curfew and detain those who violate it.”
It said the government would “re-establish order and take the appropriate measures to take back control.”
Haiti’s government is notoriously weak — kidnapping and other violent crime is rampant and gangs are often better armed than the police.
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