A television screengrab of a policeman taking cover during a street-battle with gangs in Port-au-Prince in Haiti
At least three people were killed and an estimated 4000 prisoners escaped when gangs attempting to overthrow the government stormed Haiti’s largest prison Saturday night.
Port-au-Prince, the capital of the strife torn nation which shares a Caribbean island with the Dominican Republic, has been rocked by violence ever since former police officer Jimmy Chérizier consolidated various gangs that rule over 80 per cent of the city under him, and launched a violent campaign early last year to overthrow the government led by Prime Minister Ariel Henry.
Henry, a neurosurgeon who took power after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021, is in Kenya to seeking to put together a multinational force to help stabilize Haiti.
Chérizier, better known as Barbecue, is reportedly behind several massacres as well as a two-month fuel blockade which brought the country to its knees last year. He is the solitary Haitian sanctioned by the UN Security Council, which says he “has engaged in acts that threaten the peace, security, and stability of Haiti and has planned, directed, or committed acts that constitute serious human rights abuses.”
The latest spike in violence began Thursday, when Henry left for Kenya and Barbeque threatened to capture senior officials including ministers and the country’s police chief, and stop Henry from returning. . “With our guns and with the Haitian people, we will free the country,” he said in a video recording.
The same day, four policemen died in coordinated attacks on various targets including the international airport by gang members, who also took over two police stations. The fresh spate of violence forced businesses and schools to shut down.
Last year, Barbeque warned against any deployment of foreign forces in the country, and rallied Haitians to mobilize against the government. While insisting that “If the foreign force comes to help and provide security for life to start over again, we will also applaud,” he reminded Haitians about the last UN peacekeeping force, which committed sexual abuses, child trafficking and introduced cholera into water sources. “We are asking the population to rise up,” he told a news conference. “We will fight against them until our last breath. It will be a fight of the Haitian people to save the dignity of our country.”
