By: Staff Writer
March 5, 2021
More than 200 inmates have escaped during a prison break in Port Au-Prince, Haiti in late February, leaving some 25 people dead as gang violence and protests cripple the nation.
The prison break occurred on February 25 at the Croix-des-Bouquets Civil Prison in the capital of Port-au-Prince. At least by that Friday, February 26, authorities had recaptured about 60 inmates and were still actively searching for more than 200 others, according to Haiti’s secretary of state for communication, Frantz Exantus.
Gang violence in Haiti has mounted in recent years, and Arnel Joseph, a notorious gang leader that was killed in the prison break, had been among the country’s most wanted fugitives before his arrest in 2019. He had been awaiting trial on charges of murder, rape and kidnapping.
Joseph was killed in a shootout with police after he escaped, Exantus said at a news conference. Joseph was said to be riding on a motorbike through the city when police attempted to stop him, according to Exantus. Joseph allegedly opened fire on the police and was subsequently killed by return fire from the officers.
The prison director, Paul Joseph Hector, was also killed in the break after inmates opened fire on prison officers with one of them being Hector.
Several of the 25 people killed were bystanders, authorities said, who were attacked by prisoners as they escaped.
Protests are still raging in Haiti with persons taking the street asking for the nation’s president, Jovenel Moïse, to step down or be removed from office over his failure to deal with rising crime including kidnappings and random gang violence, with persons accusing Moïse of trying to establish a new dictatorship in the country.
During the protests on February 28, a 63-year-old pediatrician was murdered in front of his clinic by unidentified assailants who had sought to abduct him, neighbouring residents told local media.
Since recent months, Haiti has seen an upsurge in kidnappings for ransom that have affected both the richest inhabitants and those living below the poverty level.
Additionally President Jovenel Moise has been ruling by decree for a year because there currently is no parliament, and only a third of its senators are in office. Legislative elections due in 2018 were delayed. Additionally, parliamentary elections were due in October, 2019 but we postponed until September, 2021.
Moise maintains that his term lasts until February 2022 — but the opposition argues it should have ended three weeks ago, in a standoff over disputed elections. The last presidential elections in Haiti were held in November, 2016 where Moise won 55 percent of the vote with his closest challenger winning only 19 percent of the vote.