Haiti in state of emergency and under curfew after thousands of inmates escape from Port-au-Prince jail

The security crisis in Haiti pushed the government to declare a state of emergency and to impose a curfew in most parts of the country on Sunday night, according to the prime minister’s office and interim president, Ariel Henry. The decision, which will be in effect for 72 hours, comes after thousands of prisoners escaped from the main jail in the capital, Port-au-Prince, following an attack by the criminal gangs that plague the Caribbean country with terror and sought to overthrow Henry’s government. By announcing the curfew, the government hopes to “restore order and take appropriate measures to regain control of the situation.” The authorities have acknowledged that the country is experiencing “a degradation of security,” after months of gang clashes.

The Caribbean island is plunging into an abyss of violence and chaos that is resulting in thousands of internally displaced individuals. Clashes in Port-au-Prince have prompted hundreds of inhabitants of the northern part of the capital to flee their homes. The U.N. has reported that more than 800 people died in January, a stark reminder of an internal war that is bleeding the impoverished Caribbean nation. The violence is also driving out tens of thousands of Haitians, and the neighboring Dominican Republic is the main destination of this diaspora. The tension in the latter nation due to the large number of migrants it receives has been so great that its president, Luis Abinader, has issued a desperate cry for help to “save” Haiti.

The curfew declared by the Haitian government will be in effect until Wednesday, although it may be extended if the authorities are unable to stabilize the critical situation. The executive is unable to cope with the violence and has mobilized the entire security forces in an attempt to establish order, mainly in the capital. “Law enforcement agencies have been instructed to use all legal means at their disposal to enforce the ceasefire and arrest the violators,” said the interim president, who accepted that the violence “is endangering national security.”

Haiti endured a night of terror on Saturday after 3,696 inmates escaped from Port-au-Prince’s largest prison. Local organizations have reported that several criminal gangs stormed the prison, enabling 97% of the prisoners to flee. Around 15 deaths have also been reported, according to the news agency EFE. Several gang leaders and the 18 Colombian ex-military personnel accused of the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021 had been serving sentences there. The prison assault has been attributed to Jimmy Chérizier, a former elite police officer who commands one of the capital’s violent gangs. Chérizier, who goes by the name “Barbecue,” reportedly planned the attack to capture the head of the Haitian police and claims his goal was to overthrow the interim president.

As chaos engulfs his country, interim president Henry traveled to Kenya in search of support to deploy Kenyan police officers to Haiti. This is a desperate measure after failed attempts to get the United Nations to send a multinational mission, despite the fact that the Security Council approved a resolution early last year to authorize such a mission. Dominican President Abinader has denounced that the aid pledges have merely been words. The “collapse” of Haiti, said the president, “would pose a threat to us and to the region.”

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