At least 12 people are reported to have been killed in attacks on two prisons by gangs demanding the prime minister's ouster.
Haiti's government has declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew after gang-led violence erupted over the weekend and thousands of prisoners escaped after attacks on the country's two largest prisons.
The 72-hour state of emergency took effect immediately as the government announced it would launch a search for the alleged murderers, kidnappers and other violent criminals who fled in the attack.
The curfew will apply from 6pm (11pm GMT) to 5am (10am GMT).
“Police have been ordered to use all legal means at their disposal to enforce the curfew and arrest all criminals,” Prime Minister Ariel Henry said in a statement. said a statement from Finance Minister Patrick Boisvert, who is acting on behalf of the prime minister while abroad for the State-backed security forces to stabilize countries in conflicts with increasingly powerful criminal groups.
A gang led by former police officer Jimmy Sheridier, known as Barbecue, seeks to remove Henry from power.
Pierre Esperance of the National Human Rights Defense Network said only about 100 of the national prison's estimated 3,800 inmates remained behind bars after Saturday night's assault.
“We counted the bodies of many prisoners,” he added.
An AFP reporter who visited the prison on Sunday said he saw about 12 bodies outside the prison. The gates were open and there was “virtually no one” left inside, they added.
Reuters reported that there was no sign of police at the prison and the front door was open.
“I'm the only one left in the cell,” one unidentified prisoner told Reuters. “We were asleep when we heard the gunshot. The cell barrier is broken.”
The Haitian government said in a statement that police tried to repel a gang attack on the prison and another facility called Croix des Bouquets. Esperance said it was not immediately clear how many prisoners had escaped from the second prison, which housed 1,450 prisoners.
The government said the attack left “several injuries” to prison staff and inmates.
In a statement, the country thanked the country for “maintaining calm during this extremely difficult time.”
Violence in Haiti has escalated in recent days after Chéridier called for organized crime to unite and overthrow Henri. Cheridier heads a coalition of gangs and faces sanctions from the United Nations and the United States.
One volunteer prison official said Sunday that 99 inmates chose to remain in their cells at the main prison for fear of being killed in a gunfight. Among them was a retired Colombian soldier who was imprisoned on suspicion of involvement in the assassination of former President Jovenel Moïse.
Authorities warned people to be careful and “continue to support the National Police in tracking down the fugitive prisoners and taking all possible measures to arrest those responsible for these acts.”
The prime minister's exact whereabouts remained unknown Sunday. Henry is due to return from a visit to Kenya, where he signed a security agreement to combat gang violence.
Nearly 15,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in recent days, and 10 sites hosting internally displaced persons emptied over the weekend, according to the United Nations' International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Henry, who took over as prime minister in 2021 after Moïse's assassination, had planned to resign by early February, but at a regional summit in Guyana before his visit to Kenya, he announced that he would wait until 2021 when the situation was more stable. He said he intended to hold an election by August 2020.
The last election was held in 2016.